After an interminable journey through every red light in the San Fernando Valley to get to my favorite art store this afternoon to get gold leaf and sundry stuff my friend Steve, owner of said favorite art store, directed me to a sign painters’ store to get the correct sizing (esoteric artists’ term for “glue”) for gilding. While I was there I checked out their brushes because among other interesting and obscure weapons in their painting arsenal, sign writers use lining brushes, also called pinstriping brushes, or “striper” brushes, which I use for drawing in paint in the opening and final stages of making a painting. These brushes hold a lot of paint, produce a consistent width of line and there’s a nice range of sizes. Normally they’re used for putting “go-faster” stripes on cars.
So, today was like a holy grail event as far as brushes go. I found this hand made beauty in the cabinet with about a thousand others in a variety of larger sizes (this is the finest, a 000). With this fabulous little gem of a brush, I can paint a consistent line spanning about a foot  without running out of paint! I guess the Mack company has been around for ages, making brushes for sign writers since 1891. This particular work of brush manufacturing art is a “squirrel hair sword striper”; a very big name for a very small brush.
