Thursday, July 7, 2011

230 Brushes!

I am not really a painter, I am a welder. A welder who plays with paint.  I have never had the proper tools to be a painting artist. I paint with house brushes, whatever I can find.  Moving paint around with bits of steel from the shop floor.  I mostly paint on steel or sheets of copper because that is what I can find in my shop.  I paint on inappropriate surfaces.
   Yesterday I went garage sailing out of boredom and felt like a bumble bee flittering from flower to flower,
one sale after the other, hunting for nothing in particular.  Just looking.
 paints and brushes from garage sale
   Mostly it was just junk.  Years of accumulation, some broken and some still in boxes, never opened. I have never really understood garage sales.  Everything, a whole life, put out on tables for the public to peruse, grapple over and barter with, a rummage sale.  Junk for sale and pieces of history, stuff that once was important to you.
  I stumbled upon a great find, serendipity, finding something you were not looking for.  Who could know what mysterious forces would drive me there?  To a garage sale with no sign.  Not even open.  Still organizing table after table, to be officially open to the public not until tomorrow!  I was two days early.
   Lucky me, you won't believe what I found.  A big box of brushes!  230 of them, some never used and all well cared for.
Exotic and plain brushes.  Imported brushes with fine handles.
Skillfully made from the hair of wild animals and modern brushes from from nylon zoos.  Some really old brushes.  The lady selling her stuff was 82 years old and some of the brushes belonged to her mother!
 Just a handful of the pile I found!
   And there must have been a hundred tubes of paint!  Not so old, soft and pliable still with well sealed caps.  And palette knives and tools of the trade I have yet to discover.
   Did I mention the canvas?  A starving artist's dream!  Three feet wide and almost 150 feet long, an entire roll of canvas weighing over 150 pounds.  I could barely get it into my truck.
 Bucket of paint brushes!
   And then I found the bucket.  It is a tool bucket and I already own two or three of them but they are for tools, pliers, screwdrivers, wrenches, chisels, that sort of thing.  Little compartments to organize.  For now it is perfect for my brushes.  They are upright and safe.
   Well, you must be curious as to what this costs?
$100. for everything.  Now the only excuse will be me.

My art site is HERE.

9 comments:

Peggy Montano & Paintings said...

Oh, this really gets me interested(drooling?)
Don't turn me loose where there is art stuff for sale.

SooZeQue said...

OMG! Unreal find. You hit the motherload. Just don't use the great watercolor brushes on your steel and with acrylic ~ that will put an end to those. Fine brushes are so expensive. It was fate that you stumble upon such treasures. We will be waiting to see what happens to the massive canvas!!!

Jerry Carlin said...

Okay, SooZe, how the heck do I identify which brush is for what?

Barbra Joan said...

OMG! Jerry, if I found something like this I would think I died and went to heaven... I go to yard sales and sometimes find some art supplies.. but this is a major find. !!!!!!oh you were praying to the brush gods when this happened...
BJ

Jerry Carlin said...

Yes, Barbra, the Brush Gods were kind to me, but will they tell me which is which???

SooZeQue said...

I'm certainly not an expert on how to tell! Sable (super soft) watercolor. Course brushes may be acrylic. There are so many brushes. Maybe you can google some and see what comes up as to what medium they are for. GO BACK TO THE GARAGE SALE and ask the ARTIST! I'm of no help.

Yvonne said...

Wow! That's really amazing! Happy painting.

Autumn Leaves said...

Indeed a fabulous find! Something you said is exactly why I just am not comfortable at any garage sale. I'm happy as a clam in a thrift store though. The personal is taken out of it.

Cheryl said...

Jerry, it certainly was your lucky day. What a find! Enjoy! The 'find' must surely come with many stories upon which you will be able to add your own.