Next class at the Civic Center in Libertyville will be June 11th from 1pm to 3:30pm

For months now we have been washing our hands quite often and last week it dawned on me that I have never talked about washing our watercolor brushes and how to take care of them.

Watercolor brushes are probably the easiest brushes to take care of... just rinse in clean water. Yep, that's it just remember after you have painted with your watercolor brushes to rinse them in some clean water and place flat or let hang down from the handle. What not to do is rinse in the dirty used water you just used for painting and don't set the brush to dry in a container with the bristles facing up in the air. This lets water go down into the ferrule and in time makes it so the handle becomes loose from the handle and it lets water penetrate between the wood and paint of the handle which leads to the paint chipping off in time. 

let nothing touch the hairs or bristles of the brush when it is drying, otherwise, you can get a bend in the bristles that can be very hard to correct the next time you paint. Buy a nice brush and set them in the holder to dry but keep the brush holder laying flat. 

Never and I will say it again because I see beginners constantly doing this to their brushes, is touch the bristles with their fingers to give the brush a point. Your fingers have oil on them and when you try to put a point on a brush with your fingertips you in time will be putting oils from your fingers into the brush and that isn't a good thing since water and oil do not mix. 

I have been asked if you should use soap for watercolor brushes and my answer has always been just rinse with clean water and let sit flat to dry. That being said there are times you can use a special soap product like the Masters Brush Cleaner and it can help to recondition your brushes if you had not been getting the paint out of the brush completely. This soap is supposed to draw out the pigment that is deep in the brush and also recondition the brush if you had left drying pigment in the brush. 

Another thing I see beginners do is to leave their brush sitting in the water container with the bristles resting on the bottom of the container. That is a no-no, don't do it because water will get into the ferrule and shorten the life of your brush. It also will bend the bristles.

Watercolor brushes will last a really long time, just take good care of them!  
Happy painting!
David