I am notoriously hard on brushes, and so I have learned a few things about cleaning them in order to lengthen their lives.
Here are the steps that I follow:
1. Wipe your brush on a paper towel. After trying a bunch of different materials for wiping brushes, I have settled on shop towels cut into 1/4ths.
2. Rinse the brush in a brush washer filled with an oil solvent. I like Gamsol which is pretty much the industry standard. I try to wait and use a 20% off coupon at Blick because Gamsol is not cheap. Because I live in Arizona, I can buy it by the gallon. My understanding is that you can’t do that in California because of hazardous materials laws. I’ve heard that some artists from California will stock up if they are out of state.
3. Clean the brush thoroughly with soap. You can buy expensive soaps which are especially made for cleaning brushes, but I’ve found that Ivory soap is mild, works well, and is much cheaper.
First wet the bar of soap, and then run your brush directly over the soap picking up as much soap as you can. Then rub the soap-filled brush around in your hand dislodging as much paint as possible.
Squeeze the soap and paint from the brush into the sink, running your thumb and forefinger from the ferule to the brush tip.
Repeat these steps until you see no paint color when you run the brush over the bar of ivory soap. This is one reason that I like Ivory soap. It is white and you can really tell if you’ve gotten all of the paint out of the brush.
You can let the brush dry with the soap in it to help it retain its shape or you can rinse it out completely if you wish. If you leave the soap in the brush to shape it as it dries, just run the brush back and forth in your hand to remove the soap before you use it the next time and then rinse it out.
You can use this method at the end of each painting session or just on a fairly regular basis.
If you are like me and neglect a brush which is full of dried paint, all hope is not lost. A friend recommended Murphy’s oil soap. I keep a couple of inches of Murphy’s oil soap in an old jar and stick the brush in the jar to soak overnight. Wash the brush out in the morning using Murphy’s oil soap, and the paint should come out.
