Murder on brushes

The first session with my new painting, Fork, mangled a new brush. Fork is a large painting, 54″ x 66″. Because it’s so large I am not transferring a cartoon to the canvas but drawing directly on the surface, as you can see in this detail.

The lower third of the drawing isn’t actually finished but it’s far enough along that I can start painting.

I mixed some turquoises-gray…

…plunged a new brush into the paint and started. After a half-hour, you can see the damage to the brush–a new one, mind.

The canvas ground is rougher than usual and just chews-up bristle brushes. This is why I have a lot of brushes.