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Bravura. Long Flat
Start from £2.71 £2.71
Introducing our new bristle range Bravura; 100% natural bristle hair.
Developed for the oil artist who aims to be "painterly".
The bristles are formed to carry a good load of oil paint. allowing the artist to swipe deep and obvious marks. Defining a suggested shape by one thrust of the brush.
Take for example John Singer Sargent's "Jacques Barenton" from 1883. Notice the stripes of white in the sailor outfit, in contrast to the blocks of colour in the hair, to the softness of the face.
Sargent painted with "Bravura" only when he knew he wouldn't sacrifice delicacy needed in other areas - genius?
Our dear friend the late Richard Schmid also quoted in his book "Alla Prima II: Everything I know about painting - and more";
"I use the word painterly to mean Bravura, a style of paint application characterised by flowing impasto strokes - where the qualities of paint itself are essential to the impact of the picture - the opposite of tight"
What is the difference between the Bravura and Ultimate or indeed any of our other bristle ranges? The Answer - Bravura is unique and has taken a long time to develop and trial… without giving away too many brush making secrets, we have mixed several diameters of the best quality hog and bristle, interlocked the shape and form (this means the natural curvature of the bristle leans towards the central point thus not splaying out under pressure) and drawn the bristles down further into the ferrule. Usually we like the 'belly' of a brush to be central to the visible length but with Bravura we had the wild idea to take the belly really close to the ferrule. This has resulted in a totally different 'feel' to the brush when making marks. These beauties will hold a serious amount of oil paint and create a really controlled brush mark. Ultimate is a more 'traditional' oil brush both in the bristle we use and where the 'belly' is placed.
Please click this link for some advice on brush cleaning.
We have also released a Series of Brush Cleaning videos. Click here to see those.
BRAVURA. LONG FLAT All measurements shown in mm.
Size 
0 3.8 11.5
1 5.5 12.8
2 6.2 14.4
3 7.1 16.3
4 9.9 19.2
5 10.6 22.7
6 12.1 25
7 14.5 26.7
8 15.5 29
10 20.1 33.8
12 24.8 38.6
14 30.1 42.7
16 34.5 46.1
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