Dynasty Blog

New Brushes: Urban FX

2013-05-16T15:09:00.000-04:00

You've seen just a glimpse of the Urban FX line on Facebook page and in the post on NAMTA, so here now are all the delicious details on this cool, completely unique line of brushes, not available from anyone else. The new Urban FX line is a combination of two types of brushes. One uses natural white bristle, in flat, oval, and angular shapes in 3 sizes, small, medium and large. These

NAMTA 2013 in Minneapolis

2013-05-08T08:00:00.000-04:00

The National Art Materials Trade Association had their annual convention and floor show last week in Minneapolis. FM Brush attended with Jill Fitzhenry and Shar Sosh demonstrating new brushes!! There was a beautiful display of brushes set up, including the new Urban FX which is an outdoor painting brush series and the new Smartbrush, created for touch screen devices. I will be sharing

Artist Resources: Painting in Oils

2013-05-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

A Down Town Evening by Gyurcsak Talented painter and technical expert for Utrecht, Joe Gyurcsak, shares with us a little about oil paints and how to apply them. Oil colors have a unique historical position among mediums in which an artist can work in, because of their direct link to many of the greatest works of art in the world. This will not change anytime too soon for other mediums as they

Paint Brush Highlights: Symmetry

2013-04-24T07:30:00.000-04:00

Symmetry handle "Symmetry" comes with many things in mind; this brush is named for the balance and harmony it will bring to your art. The handle is constructed to reduce painting fatigue with a large diameter handle at the end to bring counter balance. The unique shape is in a long handled brush, available in four series for different mediums. There are both synthetic and natural hair

Artist Resources: Painting in Acrylic Paint

2013-04-11T08:30:00.000-04:00

Mixing acrylics on canvas Even though I have a love for all things art materials, I do stick primarily to acrylic paint for my own work. I have worked in many other types of paint, but this is my current and long time favorite. Perhaps that stems from having first learned how to paint with acrylics when I was a young teen. Regardless, I am sharing with you a few points on acrylic paint

Artist Spotlight: Gwenn Seemel

2013-04-05T06:00:00.000-04:00

Patern Kervinio, 2001, round brushstrokes "I definitely steal technique ideas from almost every painting I see, but I wouldn't say that I found inspiration for my style in another artist's work. That came from doing intaglio print-making when I was a teenager. In that medium, cross-hatching is a primary means for creating a tonal area. I simply translated my new-found love of cross-hatching

Paint Brush Highlights: Orange Ice

2013-03-26T15:23:00.000-04:00

Orange Ice brushes are aptly named for their cool creamy colored tuft and soft orange handle. They come in a range of round sizes and feel comfortable, solid and smooth in the hand. Since these brushes are produced in larger round sizes, they are ideal for specific types of decorative work, like mural painting, but they are also great for the large scale modern artist. I find that with these

Spring Brush Giveaway!

2013-03-22T13:49:00.000-04:00

Win a set of Palmer Brushes! People have been asking, so here it is! The contest is simple, and runs on Twitter this time. To enter, follow us on Twitter @dynastybrush. Then write a tweet as to why you want to win free brushes from Dynasty. Your tweet must include the hashtag #freebrushes and @dynastybrush. For example: "I want to win #free brushes from @dynastybrush so that I can

Creative Painting Review from Jill Fitzhenry

2013-03-15T08:00:00.000-04:00

Me! Jillybean Fitzhenry Our previous post on Creative Painting and our last eNewsletter mentioned Phyllis Gibbs' presence at the show in our booth. Sadly, Phyllis was unable to attend at the last minute. We missed her greatly and send our best to her. We just returned from the Las Vegas Creative Painting Convention. It was so great to see many of you there. It was a very busy show with

Artist Resources: Art Material Books

2013-03-08T06:00:00.000-05:00

For all you art material lovers out there, I've recorded a list of Art Material books. There may be more, so please do comment on which ones are your favorites. These are not instruction books on how to make art, but rather books on understanding materials. I have not listed books on Pigments or Color Theory as there are numerous volumes of each, but that will be an upcoming post. ;)

Creative Painting

2013-02-25T19:43:00.002-05:00

Creative Painting has started! This week in Las Vegas, the Creative Painting Convention and show opened and will run through the end of the week. Creative Painting brings together fine artists, decorative artists and all types of painting media for a full week of classes and art material demos. Jill Fitzhenry FM Brush is going to be there all week with several artists working at the expo

Black Gold Brush Winner Helen Sturgeon

2013-02-13T14:20:00.001-05:00

Helen Sturgeon was our winner a few months back, receiving a dozen Black Gold brushes to support her work as a watercolor artist. Since then she has been painting with them regularly in her floral watercolors. Helen shares that the rounds hold water nicely and the angular flats are ideal for painting veins in leaves. Since Helen started her work a few years back, she has been drawn to

Artist Spotlight: Susan Lyon

2013-02-06T13:38:00.002-05:00

Basket from Guatemala "My style is realistic with as much impressionistic color as possible. I like to combine wide brushes for sweeping strokes in the background with small, soft brushes for subtle details in my center of interest." ~Susan Lyon Susan Lyon is one of the most recognized representational painters of our time. Her work is in premier galleries internationally and her

Cosmetic Brushes versus Artist Brushes

2013-01-31T09:00:00.000-05:00

There seems to be a new trend cropping up in finding good cosmetic brushes -- shop at an art supply store. It is true that one can find superior quality cosmetic brushes in the art stores, because many art brushes are made by the same manufacturers who make cosmetic brushes. For example, FM Brush Company, Inc., Dynasty's parent company, also creates the brushes for Beauty Strokes. Since

Artist Spotlight: Cynthia Mosser

2013-01-23T09:00:00.000-05:00

Swirl Egg, orange/blue, 16" x 11" Melon Pop, 48" x 48" Portland, Oregon artist Cynthia Mosser has been a long time creative, knowing at an early age that drawing and painting was her first love. She took classes in whatever creative outlet she could, testing ceramics and photography along the way. Once she reached college, the practical side came into play with a major in art history and

Paint Brush Highlights: Interboro

2013-01-16T12:58:00.001-05:00

Interboro. Long handled, fine white natural bristles with long natural flags built with interlock construction in a seamless nickel plated ferrule. Ideal for heavy bodied paints, oils, acrylics and alkyds. It comes in rounds, filberts, flats, brights, fans and the angle wave, which is perfect for the texture in landscapes that Joe Gyurcsak mentioned in the last post. I have found the

Artist Spotlight: Joe Gyurcsak

2013-01-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

Sunlit Still Life, 12" x 12", acrylic on panel “My paintings express a sense of light, atmosphere and mood; they transcend the techniques that were employed to create them, and breathe the very light and atmosphere they were painted in. I like to capture the fleeting moments of life; the sublime manifestations of light and color, their aesthetic influences on the subject.” ~Joe Gyurcsak

Artist Spotlight: 2012 in Review

2012-12-27T12:30:00.000-05:00

It has been a full year of sharing artists, brush techniques, brush facts and ideas with you. On the note of leaving 2012 behind and looking to the future, I wanted to share a brief catch up with you of "where are they now" on some of the artists we spotlighted this year. Park and Main, in oil by Scott Gellatly Scott Gellatly featured in Outdoor Painter magazine and several shows this past

Happy Holidays from FM Brush

2012-12-21T09:30:00.000-05:00

Have a Black Gold Holiday Season However or wherever you spend your Holiday Season, have a blessed and peaceful time. From all of us at FM Brush

Artist Spotlight: Michael Ireland

2012-12-13T08:30:00.000-05:00

St. Joseph Hospital, Mt. Sterling, KY Michael Ireland, highly sought watercolorist and landscape artist, shares that when he finds a material he likes, he sticks to it. And, so it is true with his brush collection, some of which are over 30 years old. Michael has found the same to be true in all of his tools, and he chooses those which serve his style, art and habits the best, in paints,

History of the Artist Brush

2012-12-07T14:50:00.005-05:00

We don't have a lot of recorded history of the paint brush, considering that we know paintings existed from prehistoric era on the walls of caves, but we don't know exactly what tools were used to apply the paint. It could have been twigs, feathers, or human hair. We are, however, able to piece together a few pieces of brush history as early as the Egyptians using reeds with crushed ends.

Fine Art Brush Tips: Hardware Store Brushes

2012-11-30T15:30:00.002-05:00

Many of you have wondered or even called us to ask, "Is it okay to use hardware store paint brushes on my fine art?" Well the answer isn't a simple yes or no. Sure, we'd rather you consider a Dynasty brush for your work, but there are many reasons why that is actually a good plan for your work -- I'm not just patting us on the back. ;) Hardware store brushes do come in larger sizes, which can

Artist Resources: Online Galleries

2012-11-21T10:52:00.000-05:00

As the year draws to a close, many of you might be considering how to do better in sales next year, setting up organizational sites, online galleries and finding opportunities to list your art that you didn't know about before. So here, I'm compiling a list of online galleries for just that purpose. Once again, this list is not comprehensive (yet), so if you know of other galleries, please

Paint Brush Highlights: Faux Squirrel

2012-11-14T07:30:00.000-05:00

Annie using her favorite round Our Faux Squirrel brushes are hot, if I do say so myself. The kind of brush you immediately want to touch when you see it. Some artists buy these just to hold from time to time. The hair is an exceptional synthetic, and the comfortable handle is exclusive to this brush, made for working long periods. The Faux Squirrel series is the most popular with

Artist Spotlight: Kendra Ferreira

2012-11-07T14:28:00.000-05:00

Burnishing the pencil into 800 grit sanded paper with an IPC deerfoot brush Kendra Ferreira is one of those artists who has both a spectacular eye for detail and a style that recreates her subject in a painterly way -- very hard to do with colored pencil. But Kendra pulls it off with a high degree of technical skill and talent, and is noted for her colored pencil work, often mistaken for