Dances with Dust Bunnies: Used art supply haul

I always do this to myself, decide to paint a wall or some such DIY thing that delays what I really need to do. But...in my defense, I want to get the walls painted before I start moving furniture around...so I don't have to move it around again. Logic, right? Right??

So, I'm moving along, getting things done and for some unknown reason I decide to browse Craigslist...you know, scan the free stuff...meh, nothing catches my eye, then...oooh...art supplies!

So I end up with this total haul of used art supplies for 20 bucks: Pastels ( a LOT of pastels), couple dozen pastel pencils, brushes, close to 60 tubes of oil paints (many still good), pencils, blending stumps, small stack of paper, a stack of nice-sized pieces of canvas, a small tin of watercolours, a painter's box, several cans of fixative & retouch varnish, a bottle of Liquitex gesso, a jar of Golden gesso, a jar of Liquitex gel medium (never opened), two unopened quarts of odorless turpenoid, a half-full pint of Grumbacher turpentine, two jars of picture-hanging hardware, 4 palette knives (3 really nice Holbein ones), an ink brayer, an unused bar of castile soap, two large-ish baskets, a stack of art books, and an antique knife...oh, and a small plastic funnel (??).

The young woman I bought the stuff from said she got it from a friend and it had been his grandmother's. This lady. The girl said she had taken a few things out, because "she didn't know what she was doing." I'm assuming she might have taken the better brushes, as the ones left were not the best...but other than that, I don't know. Any one of the groups of things by themselves, the pastels, the stack of canvas, any 6 tubes of paint, the gessos and gel medium, or the painter's box, are each worth over $20. There are three tubes of Grumbacher in the original plastic cases, never opened, that list for $23.50, $29.45, and $29.45!

So, even If I were to give the brushes to Creative Reuse (I have a boat load of brushes) and the books, too, and throw half the tubes of paint out (I've already binned three of them)...I still came out like a bandit.

Many of the paints are no longer available, like the "Permanent Pigments" which became Liquitex. Liquitex no longer make oil paints, they have concentrated on acrylics. I remember way back in art class in high school, we dabbled a bit in acrylics and that was the only brand there was back then.

I can tell things have been stored: the oil paints have leaked out their oil in some cases, due to heat, and the brushes have been nibbled by bugs. I had that happen to some of mine....the little buggies love the boar bristles!!

So, even If I were to give the brushes to Creative Reuse (I have a boat load of brushes) and the books, too, and throw half the tubes of paint out (I've already binned three of them)...I still came out like a bandit.

It feels a bit weird, going thru all this stuff, sorting it, etc, as the lady's name is written on a lot of it, along with her address, but I think she'd be happy someone has her supplies and is using them. I took all the pastels out of the three original boxes Grumbacher portrait and landscape and NuPastel) they were in and the other, random box the Rembrandt and Webers were in. I know some people like to curate supplies and keep the boxes and all, but I put mine in my pastel drawers--I hate having to go through various boxes to find the ones I need.

Several years ago--after not having worked in pastels for literally decades, I gave my collection to one of my best friends as she was into them at the time. I've slowly been building my collection up again and this increased it like, 3-fold.

I've also been thinking about working in oils again, but didn't want to spend the money if i decided I didn't want to keep up with it--good GODS paint has become expensive!!! I notice even Jerry's is slowly edging their prices up, and soon, like Bed, Bath, and Beyond, they won't be a discount place any longer. Tricksy.

Anyway, I bought a Gamblin medium starter kit (I just realised the little red box was not in mine 😡) and am really looking forward to trying my hand again. This video explains the different medium types.

So...that is what has derailed the progress of house and studio this week. Tomorrow I have to make some embroidered streamers for work... So that will derail things for part of Sunday as well.

Please pardon the fuzzy pics...erg...

Basket O'Paints

Paint box w/palette and slots for boards. I'm probably going
to paint the outside of this, it's raw wood, but Ruth wrote all over it.

Brushes and palette knives. I really had to work to resurrect the
two larger brushes you see.

Stack O'Canvasses

Grumbacher landscape pastels

12" Antique knife. Rather sharp! Stamped "WILLIAM SANDERSON & SONS
BEST CAST STEEL SHEFFIELD" Dated to most likely mid-to-late 1800s. Crucible steel, and
very early type of plastic for the handle.