The Oldest Paint Brush I Own

I'm pretty sure I bought this brush in 1971 or 1972. When dinosaurs ruled the earth. I still use it and as you can see it's not in terrible shape. As a rule I don't throw out brushes just because they've lost their shape or worn out. They might get demoted to a function that could best be described as scrubber or scumbler, but there is still a use for the old ones.

In the early 1970s I was still in art school at Tulane University's Newcomb School of Art and I was working in acrylic. Soon after I bought this brush I stupidly neglected to clean it after using it with whatever acrylic colors I was using that day. Because it was new -- albeit ruined -- I could not bear to throw it out. So for more than 30 years I kept it with my batch of brushes. Then about five years ago I finally gave it a close look and thought that if I couldn't reclaim it to a useful function I should throw it out.

Today there are a number of very good soaps for cleaning brushes that I'm not sure existed thirty-eight years ago. With patience and repeated gentle washing I was able to return this thing to usefulness.

The brush itself is bristle, considerably softened by repeated washings. Today the manufacturers make a big deal out of boar and hog bristle imported from China. Back then, anything artistic was of enhanced value if it came from France, a land where art was deeply appreciated.

In the intervening decades the wooden handle has mottled noticeably like some sort of tiger-maple. I doubt that Raphael brushes are made in France today and, in fact, I no longer buy 'flats' as these straight edged-brushes are called. But, like owning an antique car, it's still nice to take it out once in a while and put it to work.

Wheel invented!

If you are the sort of person who pokes around on art and artists' websites you may have come across an ad for "The Carder Method" (trademarked). Carder's website sells a six-hour dvd and two tools for learning to paint and draw according to this method. The proportional dividers shown above can be bought from his website for $29.95.

Yes, that's two pieces of wood with some holes drilled into them and a brass screw and nut holding them together. $29.95. I will admit to having bought one of these a couple of years ago, largely because I am too lazy and/or inept at building and making things to have tried to make such a device myself. But that doesn't mean I don't feel foolish for having spent thirty dollars for two pieces of wood and a brass screw.

Carder also sells a color spot checker for $14.95 Presumably that's less expensive because it has no moving parts.

Mark Carder is a very capable and accomplished portrait artist. You can see some of his work on the same website. I respect his art considerably more than I do his marketing claims.

The method itself being described on his website is a quite solid, dependable, almost foolproof method for learning to draw by carefully measuring proportions and learning to paint by carefully observing and comparing mixed colors to the natural colors you're trying to duplicate. As Carder says in a video on his site, this is "how to become a color Xerox."

But while Carder has trademarked the name "The Carder Method," I don't see a patent mentioned anywhere. The irony is that his descriptions of his "method" leave one with the impression that he's come up with all this himself. In fact, these methods have been around much longer than Mr. Carder.

Proportional dividers are such an old concept that one can find them showing up in old master etchings and engravings. And the color-spot method of painting was being taught by Charles W. Hawthorne after the turn of the previous century. "Hawthorne on Painting" published in the 1930s is still being reprinted, by the way, and can be purchased from Dover for $5.95, considerably less than Mr.Carder might charge were he to issue it under his name.

In the book, Hawthorne makes no claim to having originated this approach to painting himself but neither does he mention Carder who, in fact, would not be born for another few decades.