Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Busy Busy Bee

Well yesterday was class which lasted from 10 - 2:30 and so tired when I came home. Then today was watercolor society meeting and now have to type up the minutes and download the photos and try to remember everything the guest artist/speaker said and did - which was very cool because it was about Oriental Brush Painting techniques and she had such lovely things from carved chops to paper to those wonderful brushes and brush hangers and ink blocks and...well it's a whole technique built about patience and beauty and serenity :)

But I wanted to share what I got in the mail yesterday from Cheap Joe's. This is my belated birthday present (used by gift certificate from Mom). A pack of 5 sheets of Twinrocker paper, feather deckled edge, 16" x 20 coldpress + a Tony van Hasselt "Magic Muslin" brush (it's got a great sturdy round handle that short for moving the brush around and it's ox hair that's so soft (how can ox hair be so soft?) + a Size 10 Escoda Kolinsky sable brush! My PALS friends talked me into this one over another Kolinsky, saying the Escoda brand is just fantastic.
Art supplies make me so happy!


7 comments:

Angela said...

Me too! I am so jealous! :)

Enjoy your new supplies - can't wait to see what you create with them!

Chris Beck said...

I've heard good things about Escoda brushes but haven't ever used one. I'll be interested to hear how you like it.

Nava said...

And what art supplies!! Yes, the Escoda brushes are considered the best. I wonder which brush you got: is it the Dragon's Tongue? that brush is my ultimate addiction, and it's incredible.

Enjoy these!!

Teresa Palomar Lois said...

Arf arf arf!
You can bet I came to check on the blue flower but this post.... arf!!!

I want a HUGE report on those Oriental Brush Painting techniques and everythig you heard in that meeting... on my table for yesterday, I'm so envious right now!!! Did they share anything about caligraphy?

And goodies! You'll love the Escoda Rhonda, and looks like the Twinrocker paper have worked pretty well for you, right? may I ask the size of the "magic muslin" brush?

RH Carpenter said...

Thanks, Angela, but don't be jealous - I'll let you know if you should get something like this in the future (I'll test drive it for you!).
Chris, my friends say Escodas are the ultimate so I'll see what I think. I have already been enchanted with the only Kolinsky sable I have - a No. 12 Daniel Smith brand.
Nava, how are you, girl??? Good to hear from you - were you afraid I was gathering that posse to come to your house? :) I got the No. 10 which is really a size 8 (they are a size smaller than I'm used to with other brands so wish I'd gotten a No. 12 - which would have been a 10. Just the rounds, no dragon's tongue but that sounds interesting - maybe next present!
Teresa, I will try it out today to see how it flows but I'm sure you're right and you use them all the time, yes? The Magic Muslin (don't know why it's called that) is 1 1/2 inches across, a nice, soft flat that I want to use for washes. I'll let you know - it wasn't expensive. When I get the watercolor society minutes typed up, I'll send them to Sandy, who will put them on the GCWS blog so you can read all about it and see the pics.

Nava said...

Oh yeah, the posse threat did it ;-)

Dragon's Tongue is very similar to a round sable brush, but it has with a wonderfully longer and finer point, that snaps back to a good "needle" point. Love them! But they never seem to be on sale...

RH Carpenter said...

Good, Nava, now I'll know how to get you back in the blogosphere when you go missing. Hope you are doing well - hate it when my artist friends are in ruts or down in the dumps or just in moods where creativity comes infrequently. Wishing the Creativity Faery to touch you with her wand and give you wonderful dreams you just can't NOT put on paper!