ROSEMARY & CO IN THE STUDIO: with David Curtis: Oil Brushes

David Curtis giving an overview on his brush set, which can be found on our website:
www.rosemaryan...
David Curtis is a member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. He is one of the UK’s most successful and best known artists. David won first prize in the Singer and Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition in 1992, and has won many other awards for his spectacular art. Consequently, his paintings have a strong visual presence and enable the spectator to embark on an exciting visual journey. Essentially a “plein air” and figurative painter, working in both oil and watercolours, he is the author of numerous books and has work in collections all over the world.
“I like the little Ivory Long Flat for the more finite areas in a painting. I use the Ivory Short Flats for anything on a finer canvas or board, you need these! I don’t have a specific use for each size, they are a work horse to use across the entire range. For any gesso primer and texture work, the Ivory Short Flats are fabulous. The two little Ivory riggers are used for sweeping, long thin lines. For example rigging on ships or telegraph posts, thin masts on boats. Anything that needs a thin sweeping line - they are wonderful. There’s a little bit more body to the size 2. For the body of my paintings I use the sizes 1, 2, 3’s and then as I get to the big broader areas, I climb to the sizes 5, 7 8 and above. It’s not an exact science, I work my way through all the ranges.
The use of Rosemary brushes for both oils and watercolours for me allows a surety of expression and delight in paint application in both plein air and that more considered work in the studio setting.” David Curtis, 2024