The Mindful Artist

Why you MUST meditate

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I know it’s SO annoying someone telling you what to do!

And I don’t, usually, but as the New Year kicks off, a lot of people are looking to adopt new habits. I want to share with you THE SINGLE MOST ESSENTIAL HABIT I have ever developed and how incredibly helpful it can be to you not only as an artist but as a happy human being.

For those of you that know me or have followed my blog for awhile, you know that I meditate daily.  It helps keep me centered and brings me incredible peace during easier times and steadiness during challenging or painful times.

The nature of the superficial mind is often scattered, judgmental, fearful, worried and anxious. Without training these negative thinking patterns can become ingrained. We actually believe what our mind tells us without the ability to discern. Often, we turn those thoughts against ourselves. But when we train the mind, we can better connect with our deeper selves.

Peace is an innate part of our inner nature, but we must practice regularly to be able to put some distance between ourselves and our often negative thoughts. I recommend to starting small. Five minutes is plenty for a beginner start. Aim to increase gradually to a daily practice of 15 – 20 minutes. There are many resources on meditation on the web or apps you can get for your phone to help you get started. Please be patient. It does take time for most of us. It took me some years, but now I can easily drop into calm and centeredness even in very challenging situations.

Please let us know in the comments – Have you ever tried meditation? Was it hard for you? If you have an established practice, please let us know what it has done for you.

How to Remove Dried and Hardened Paint from Your Paint Brushes

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Assuming you take excellent care of your brushes – wiping them carefully, washing them in warm soapy water after each use, it’s still common for paint residue to build up around the ferrule* over time. I find many beginning acrylic painters just rinse their brushes in water after a painting session without using soap. The paint comes out, but the clear acrylic polymer stays in the brush so they look clean but the bristles dry stiff and the brush is unusable.

I used to think when oil or acrylic paint dried in a brush and it became hardened that it was a lost cause. I tried lots of things – soaking them overnight in soap or solvent, depending on whether the paint was oil or acrylic. I experimented with all kinds of specialized brush cleaning products such as Kiss-Off, the Masters, EZ-Air cleaner with limited success. The bristles were still stiff and some of the paint would come out but not all of it. I also tried to get dried acrylic out with the soaps many artists recommended such as Fels-Naptha, Murphy’s Oil Soap without success. Once a brush became hardened, I had to throw it out.

It wasn’t until Winsor and Newton came out with theirBrush Cleaner and Restorer ** that I found the perfect solution for reviving old brushes. What I really love about it is that it is environmentally friendly as it is both non-toxic and biodegradable. (But remember the paint and pigments you remove from the brush might not be, so once it is used, please dispose of it in your local Household Hazardous Waste facility.) I reuse the brush cleaner over and over by allowing it to stand in a clear glass jar. The pigment particles settle to the bottom of the jar and the liquid at the top can be poured off and reused for the next cleaning. 

Here is a pdf the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for Winsor & Newton’s Brush Cleaner and Restorer.(On some computers the download will begin immediately. Please check your downloads folder.)

* Watch the video to find out what a ferrule is!

 **affiliate link (By purchasing through this link you help support costs of running this website, email service, create videos etc.) 

Have you ever had to throw out a brush that became too stiff to use? Do you have any hardened, dried up paint brushes? What are your solutions? Share your thoughts and tips in the comments section below!