Wild Brushes For Experimental Painters
Here's a collection of lovely and unusual brushes. I love the hand-made quality - slightly wonky and very wild. A part of me just thinks they are beautiful objects and could be hung on a wall but a BIGGER part of me wants to get them ultra painty and see what they can do!
Above we have - what I am calling - the multi-brush paint brush. This would be an amazing way to paint consecutive lines or stripes simultaneously. The first thing I would try with this is a wobbling line and the second thing I would try is to turn with one end as the axis to see if I could make consecutive circles. These brushes are made by artist Rich Waller for his own use. He generously offer lots of tips on modifying and constructing your own brushes on his website.
The above brushes were created by artist Mitch Kimball. They look as though they could come to life at any moment like strange little Jim Henson characters. I must be thinking of Fraggles because of their awesome hair styles. Anyway, Mitch found a number of interesting types of animal hairs to use on these brushes and if you are going to make your own brushes, he advises that you use a mixture of different types of hairs in one brush.
Below is the collection of brushes used by artist Catherine White. They are all hand-made brushes most of which are made by the artist.
"I started making brushes in college. At first I just loved how they looked. I made all of these but the one furthest to the left which I bought on Canal Street (NYC) in 1979 from a street vendor who said he bought it in Afghanistan. The longer I had them around the more committed I became to using them, to finding the voice of collaboration between each brush, a material, and my hand. They are made of my hair, grasses, feathers and animal fur with bamboo for the handle--at least until that binder clip comes in handy." - Catherine White (artist)
