The Power of Exceptional Tools
I remember as a child I learned this while I watched “The New Yankee Workshop” hosted by Norm Abram with my dad every Saturday morning. I remember hearing Norm talk about his tools and how care for them, often saying “take care of your tools, and they will take care of you”. At the time (I was probably 5 years old) I didn’t quite understand how tools could take care of you. My dad would tell me what Norm meant was that if you take care of your tools all the work that you do is much easier because the tools are in good working condition.
But then came the paradox of being a painter. Over the years as I studied painting in many mediums; tempera, water color, acrylic, ink, and finally oil paints (my favorite). I always found that my paint brushes would not hold up to the job, no matter how well I cared for them. As I would paint the bristles would fall out and stick to the painting, or getting detail work would be difficult and feel reminiscent of drawing details with crayons rather than sharp colored pencils (the worst!). Eventually after trying all price points and qualities of brushes and bristles, I assumed that it was simply “how it was”, and that you have to learn how to work around brushes to master your craft.
Until one day I stumbled across a portrait demo by an artist named Casey Baugh as he spoke about some of his favorite tools or oil painting he spoke about the importance of exceptional quality paint brushes how much he loved a brush company called Rosemary & Co. Then began a long binge of videos done by many artists in many styles and mediums all praising the quality of these brushes.
I decided to invest in the Rosemary & Co brushes (I own more than 10 now). I can say for my own work these brushes have been a dream to paint with! If you are serious about painting even if you are a student or just starting, these brushes will take care of you.
If you would like to see the making of Rosemary & Co. brushes click here. And for some demos of the brushes here are a couple great videos Cesar Santos, Michelle Dunaway.
Bring some beauty into your world today.
