Nobody’s painting in here is trying to win a prize for suffering. We like paint nights that feel good: brushes that behave, colors that stay put, hands that do not cramp by the second canvas. Most of the difference is not talent. It is the small stuff next to the easel.
Full honesty, some of this started as studio habits and some of it started as “why did nobody tell me this existed” moments. All of it is stuff we actually use, or watched someone use and immediately went and bought ourselves.
Anyway, here is what we would hand a painter who wants the next session to go easier.
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1. Paint Puck
Paint Puck Original Paint Brush Cleaner, 3 pack, Paint Puck
This is the little bowl of water with the bumps in it that lets you rinse a brush without destroying it, and then stand the brush up in it while you think. We did not believe the hype until we watched a whole table stop looking down at their brushes like they owed them money. It also fixes one of the classic paint-night problems: the cup tips over, the table turns into a river, everyone laughs, nobody is having fun. This one is not tipping over, and your brushes will last long enough to use actual paint on them next time.
2. Masterson Sta-Wet Palette
Masterson Sta-Wet Premier Palette, Masterson Art
A palette that keeps your paint wet is the quietest kind of magic trick, and this one works even if you walk away for a week. Mix too much blue, come back to it later, still blue. It is a sponge, a sheet of special paper, and a lid, which sounds like nothing until you realize you are no longer scraping dried paint off a plate like a caveman. For acrylics especially, which dry the minute you look at them sideways, this is not optional. It is the difference between a relaxing class and a race against the air.
3. “The Masters” Brush Cleaner & Preserver
“The Masters” Brush Cleaner and Preserver, General Pencil Company, at Blick
Brushes die young, and usually it is not the brush’s fault. This little tub of cleaner smells like it means business, gets dried paint out of the ferrule, and then leaves the bristles soft enough to use again next week. We have watched people rescue brushes they were ready to throw away and then go on painting with them for a year. Rub the wet brush around in it, rinse, shape it back to a point, done. Ten bucks, and your favorite brush lives.
4. Winsor & Newton Brush Cleaner & Restorer
Winsor & Newton Brush Cleaner & Restorer, Winsor & Newton
By the third painting, every brush at the table starts to look like it has been through a small war. The bristles are stiff, the points are gone, and every stroke leaves a sad little scratch where a line was supposed to go. This stuff brings them back. Soak them, rinse them, and the brush remembers what it was for. It is cheaper than replacing five brushes a month, which is what happens when nobody cleans them properly.
5. Golden OPEN Acrylic Medium
Golden OPEN Acrylic Medium, Matte, Golden Artist Colors, at Blick
Acrylics dry fast. You know this. You have watched a perfect blend turn into a hard edge while you were reaching for the other color. This medium slows the whole thing down, gives you time to actually blend, and behaves like the paint you wanted in the first place. It relaxes, thins a little, and turns a frantic session into something that feels more like painting and less like doing chores against a stopwatch.
6. Creative Mark Wet Canvas Carrier
Creative Mark Protector Wet Canvas Carrier, Creative Mark, at Jerry’s Artarama
The painting is done, it looks great, and it is still wet. Now it has to survive the car. This wooden carrier holds two canvases or panels with space protected between them, so nothing smears against a seat, a trunk, or the other painting. It handles work up to 27 inches tall, which covers most of what leaves a paint night or a class. Anyone who has ever ridden home with a wet canvas balanced on their lap like a pizza owes this thing an apology and a purchase.
7. Master’s Touch 12″ x 16″ Acrylic Paper Pad, 12 Sheets
Fineline Applicators, at Clayscapes Pottery
Sometimes you do not need a canvas. You need a sheet you can try something on and not feel guilty about it if it goes sideways. This pad is thick, holds the paint, and costs less than a sandwich. Keep one next to the easel for test colors, practice brushstrokes, and the paintings that turn out so well you frame them anyway even though they started as a test. We have done exactly that.
8. Winsor & Newton Galeria Acrylic – Cobalt Blue Hue
Princeton Catalyst Wedges, Princeton Artist Brush Co.
Every table ends up with a church where everyone worships the same one or two colors, and this blue is usually one of them. It is strong, it mixes clean, and it hits that exact spot between sky and sad. It is also a good one to have because it looks good with absolutely everything on the table. If you are only going to buy one tube outside your usual kit, make it this one.
9. Art Advantage 16″ x 20″ Canvas Panel 2 Pack
OttLite Clip-On LED Easel Lamp, OttLite
These are the panels for the class that wants to paint big without paying big. They are flat, they are firm, and they do not bend in the middle like a taco the minute you load a brush with paint. Two for the price of a fancy coffee is absurd, and if you mess one up, you have a spare. That is the kind of security that makes you brave enough to try something you have never painted before.
10. Kiss-Off Stain Remover
General’s Kiss-Off Stain Remover, General Pencil Company
They make a version of this that you can in fact use as a fabric stain remover, and the joke writes itself: Kiss Off. One little wipe, and the smudge on your favorite shirt stops looking like a fatal accident. It also works on paper if you are very, very careful, and on the floor, and on the table. Keep one in your kit, keep one in your car, keep one in your bag. Paint goes where it goes. This stops it from staying there.
So that is our ten. Now we want yours, because every painter we have ever met is hiding at least one secret weapon: some odd little tool, some borrowed kitchen gadget, some thing a teacher handed them in 2009 that they have used ever since. Drop yours in the comments. Bonus points if it is weird, and double bonus points if it lives in your rinse cup.
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