How to Carry Your Brushes

By Mary Ann Boysen

An excellent way to carry your brushes is in a bamboo placemat. I wove elastic through the middle of the placemat, creating tight spaces for the brushes to be held. If the brushes are wet when you store them, just slip a folded paper towel behind the bristles, and roll it up. You can also tie a ribbon to one side of the mat, and wrap it around the rolled up mat and slip the end through the ribbon to seal it.

If you'd rather buy one that is ready made, you can get one at Dick Blick for just a few dollars. This is probably the easiest way to go if you like this type of holder. I like to make things by hand for fun but these are nearly the same cost and you won't need to spend any time with them. I leave that decision up to you.

There are more expensive canvas brush holders like the American Journey brush caddy, or the same design made by Winsor Newton. They are all pretty much the same so I wouldn't worry too much about brands of this is the type of carrier you prefer.

For Plein Air painting and traveling I use a collapsible brush bucket by Princeton. I don't store my brushes upright in this manner as I mentioned on my watercolor brushes page, but the water bucket part is great.

The bottom line if your traveling or just painting outside is to find something cheap and effective to carry your brushes and don't try to combine this with other needs like carrying water. You can really damage your brushes this way, so I recommend that you have both a brush holder and a collapsible water bucket.

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