The Store Room · Museum Wing
🖌 The Cabinet of Brushes
The first shelf of the Store Room, rebuilt as a little museum. Step up to any brush and open its case.
New display — tell Hannah what you think in class. The rest of the shelves are just below, same as always.
Robert Simmons
Oil brushes
Sturdy, affordable workhorses — the brushes to learn oils on without babying them.
Open the case →
Princeton
Synthetic brushes
The best synthetics for the money — great spring, easy cleanup, kind to beginners.
Open the case →
Da Vinci
Sable brushes
Real sable for the passages that need a soft touch — detail, glazing, final edges.
Open the case →
Rosemary & Co
Handmade brushes
A small English maker working painters swear by. Start with the Masters Choice line.
Open the case →
Trekell
Brushes
California-made brushes with beautiful handles and honest prices.
Open the case →
Bristles up, always. — the studio jar
🖋 Curator’s note
…Hannah is still writing this label. Ask her in class.
⬇ The rest of the Store Room — Paint, Mediums & Brush Care, Palettes & Knives, Drawing, Pastel, Paper — is just below, same as always.
Brush
Why it’s in Hannah’s kit
In class, you’ll reach for it when…
Care
Works beautifully with →
🖋 Curator’s note
…Hannah is still writing this label. Ask her in class.
The Store Room · Museum Wing
🎨 The Cabinet of Paint
The tubes worth reaching for — honest starters, historical pigments, and the palette Van Gogh built his canvases from.
New display — tell Hannah what you think.
Gamblin 1980
Student-grade oil
true colour, honest price
Find it →🟢Gamblin Artist’s Oils
Professional oil
when you’re ready to spend a little more
Find it →🟤Rublev historical oils
Historical oil
pigments ground the old way
Find it →🔵the best vermilion
Single-pigment red
Hannah’s favourite red
Find it →🟤Old Holland Yellow Brown
Historical oil
a warm ochre-brown
Find it →He worked from complementary pairs — yellow against blue, red against green — so the colours vibrate. Every chip links to the paint.
Greens
Reds & Oranges
Whites
Curator’s note
Start with the Gamblin 1980s — true colour at an honest price — and reach for the historical pigments when a passage asks for them. Oils throughout: thick paint, little solvent, the way he worked.
The Store Room · Museum Wing
🎨 Which Colour for the Job?
Two pigments can both be "red" and behave like opposites. Read the job, pick the paint a painter would reach for, and learn what each one really does.
A painter's eye is trained one decision at a time.
Pick a colour to make. Both sets of primaries mix it at once, side by side — watch where they agree, and where they don't.
Traditional
Modern
Why two sets — and when they began
Red-yellow-blue is the older idea. A printer named Jacob Le Blon showed around 1725 that red, yellow and blue could reproduce most colours, and Goethe's Theory of Colours (1810) fixed them as the artist's primaries — it's been taught that way in art schools ever since. Magenta-yellow-cyan came later, out of colour science and the printing press in the 1800s–1900s, once we understood which pigments actually filter light most efficiently. That's why every printer, magazine and screen today runs on CMY.
So which do you reach for? Red-yellow-blue is intuitive and lovely for warm, natural, historical harmonies — earths, skin tones, landscape. Magenta-yellow-cyan reaches the bright corners RYB can't — clean violets, vivid greens, true pinks. The painter's move is to keep both: mix with your red-yellow-blue instinct, but add a magenta and a cyan to the box so the whole colour wheel is open to you.
Same goal, two sets of primaries. One triangle of colour reaches further than the other.
The Store Room · Museum Wing
🎨 The Cabinet of Paint
The colours worth reaching for — every dab in the studio, charted by family. Tap any one to open its case.
Complementary pairs vibrate; earths and greys quiet a picture down. Tap a dab to learn what it does.
Enter the World of Colour →Press Esc or tap Back to close
The Store Room · Museum Wing
✏️ The Cabinet of Drawing
Before colour, there is the mark. Graphite, charcoal, and the quiet tools that lift and blend it — the drawing shelf of the Store Room. Start by running the graphite scale from hard to soft.
The Cabinet · shelf two
Charcoal — three kinds
The Cabinet · shelf three
Erasers, stumps & surfaces
A working studio shelf — the marks these make are only as good as the hand behind them. Bring questions to class.
Sharpen your eye
Enter the Training Room →Eye-and-hand drills from the old ateliers — one skill at a time.
🧰 The Atelier Store Room
Everything you need in class is supplied. This room is for your home kit — the stuff Hannah actually uses, buys, and recommends.
Links go to the maker or to Blick. When in doubt, buy the smaller size first — good materials in small amounts beat cheap ones in bulk.
From the store room · Shelf one
🖌 Brushes
Buy fewer, better brushes — and clean them like you mean it.
Robert Simmons
Oil brushes
Sturdy, affordable workhorses — the brushes to learn oils on without babying them.
Princeton
Synthetic brushes
The best synthetics for the money — great spring, easy cleanup, kind to beginners.
Da Vinci
Sable brushes
Real sable for the passages that need a soft touch — detail, glazing, final edges.
Rosemary & Co
Handmade brushes
A small English maker working painters swear by. Start with the Masters Choice line.
Trekell
Brushes
California-made brushes with beautiful handles and honest prices.
From the store room · Shelf two
🎨 Paint
The tubes worth the money — and the makers behind them.
Winsor & Newton
Oils
The classic — the Artists’ line when you can, Winton while you’re learning.
Rublev
Historical oils
Pigments ground the old way — paint like the masters actually used.
Williamsburg
Handmade oils
Dense, handmade, beautiful earth tones.
“top tier” — Hannah
Old Holland
Oils since 1664
The oldest paint maker still going.
“has the best vermillion” — Hannah
M. Graham
Walnut-oil oils
Gentle, buttery paint bound in walnut oil.
“makes my favorite transparent yellow oxide / transparent red oxide” — Hannah
Holbein
Gouache
Creamy, dense, and rewets nicely — the gouache worth the price.
Golden
Acrylics
If you work in acrylic, Golden is the answer.
“golden acrylics are good” — Hannah
Winsor & Newton
Professional watercolors
If watercolor sneaks into your practice, start here.
From the store room · Shelf three
🧴 Mediums & Brush Care
What thins the paint, and what saves the brushes.
Linseed & Walnut Oil
Painting mediums
A little oil goes a long way — M. Graham’s walnut oil is lovely.
Masters Brush Cleaner
Brush soap
The little puck that makes expensive brushes last for years.
From the store room · Shelf four
🪞 Palettes & Knives
Where the real painting happens — before the canvas.
Glass Palette
Studio mixing surface
Scrapes clean in seconds. A New Wave wooden palette is the plein-air pick.
Porcelain Palette
Mixing tray
Gouache behaves better on porcelain — worth the cupboard space.
From the store room · Shelf five
✏️ Drawing
The charcoal box — what actually goes in it.
Nitram
Charcoal — the whole brand
The charcoal serious ateliers use — holds a point, erases clean. Anything with their name on it earns its keep.
Tombow
Eraser pens
An eraser sharp enough to draw with — pull highlights out of charcoal like a white pencil.
Stumps & Sandpaper Paddle
Studio sundries
A few dollars for the two tools every charcoal drawing needs.
From the store room · Shelf six
🖍 Pastel
Soft color, serious surfaces.
Sennelier
Soft pastels
Impossibly soft, impossibly rich — like painting with pigment itself.
PastelMat
Sanded card
A velvety surface that grips pastel and barely needs fixative.
From the store room · Shelf seven
📄 Paper & Sketchbooks
The surface is half the drawing.
Fabriano Roma “Michelangelo”
Charcoal paper
A laid Italian paper with real tooth — charcoal sits on it beautifully.
Stonehenge
Drawing & painting paper
The do-everything paper: graphite, charcoal, even paint.
Arches
Watercolor paper — 140lb cold press
For gouache and watercolor that deserve better than a student pad.
From the store room · Shelf eight
🖼 Painting Surfaces
Panels, linen, and honest practice surfaces.
From the store room · Shelf nine
🪑 Easels & Studio Gear
The furniture of a working studio.
Mabef
Easels
Buy-once Italian easels.
“mabef but meeden are really good too and cheaper” — Hannah
Buy fewer, better things — and wear them out.
Wondering about something not on the shelves? Ask Hannah — the store room restocks all the time.