Lisa McShane Art

A new shipment of mongoose and chungking bristle Rosemary brushes Yesterday I arrived home to find a wonderful little box leaning against my front door: a new shipment of Rosemary brushes. It's been awhile since I've written about brushes, and my Rosemary brushes have clocked several miles of strokes, so I thought I'd narrow down my list of what I like and don't. I think the mongoose and the chungking bristles are amazing. The prices are shockingly low, the quality exceptional. Buy these. At first I liked the ivory line - a synthetic bristle brush - but now they seem to splay when loaded with paint and the splay is not for me. I think these would be good for acrylic painters but for oil, I think natural bristle just performs better. The ebony brushes are good but they do turn into a sort of crazy mop, like the bad perm I had in 1st grade, and no matter what I try I can't seem to persuade them to go back to looking like the brush I ordered. It could be my cl...

My favorite Rosemary Brushes all lined up I've posted before -  here  - about the very exciting/super affordable brushes from Rosemary & Co. It's been several months and two orders and it's high time I provided a real review. Lately, nearly all my painting has been with 4 or 5 of the Rosemary and Co brushes. Love  Mongoose Long Filbert, series 278, in size 8. For larger areas of painting and glazing with soft edges, this is my favorite. It's thick enough in the belly to hold up with thick paints. Is amazing for glazing. Soft, soft edges to this one. It's the top one in the photo and I'm ordering the size 12 next. Ebony Short Flat in size 8. This is a great brush for laying in an underpainting and for glazing areas on small to medium paintings. Why so great? Because it's soft but holds it's own with the paint, doesn't collapse or splay and is thick enough to really handle well. You can scrub in areas with this, scumble, glaze, draw. The wo...