By Harrie Dearing. First published on harriedearingart.com.
‘ There is a beauty in her work, that makes each brush feel like a work of art in its own right…’
https://www.rosemaryandco.com/brush-sets
Rosemary & Co, is one of the world’s most respected artisans of paint brushes. They have very generously donated a beautiful collection of brushes to Studio Brut and we can’t wait to get them into the hands of our outsider artist community. As a small Thank you we wanted to share with you a little about the company’s story and about the products they have kindly stocked up the studio with. . .
Rosemary & Co are a family-run brush-making business based at Carr Head Hall in Cowling, in Yorkshire. Founded by Rosemary Thompson in the 1980s. Before starting out on her own, Rosemary cut her teeth at ABS Brushes. When ABS closed its doors, Rosemary carried that knowledge forward and founded her own brush company. Over the following decades she travelled far and wide, sourcing materials from around the world and adopting different brush-making traditions and techniques to hone her craft.
I love how personal Rosemary’s practice is. There is a beauty in her work that makes each brush feel like a work of art in its own right. And the business is run with this same personal sentimentality, It’s a small, family-run operation. Rosemary’s daughter Symi joined the business after training as a lawyer, and now runs sales and marketing, regularly meeting artists on the road, including in the USA. There’s a hearty direct-to-artist ethos running through the whole company: no cold corporate distance, just genuine people who care about brushes talking to people who use them.
Each brush is handmade in England, and the company has now been doing this for well over 40 years. That kind of longevity in a niche trade says a lot, it’s why artists world wide keep coming back to them, time and time again.
What’s Landed in the Studio
Rosemary & Co have donated a range of brushes, some full sets, and a range of individual shapes and sizes from their bristle ranges. Here’s the rundown.
Set 125, Oils & Acrylic (Ivory)
This is a set of seven brushes in their popular Ivory range, a 100% synthetic, vegan-friendly fibre designed for oils and acrylics. During the making process, the fibres in these brushes are sandblasted with tiny shards of glass, which gives them a firm, springy feel and makes them wear really well and clean up easily. The set includes pointed rounds (great for fine detail and signatures, as they hold a sharp point), a filbert (soft-edged, good for blending), and both long and short flats, so there’s a wide range of shapes to experiment with.
Set 150, Oils & Acrylic (Eclipse)
A set of ten brushes from the Eclipse synthetic range, known as one of Rosemary & Co’s most popular lines for oil and acrylic painters. This set covers rounds (for drawing in and fine detail), short flats (for punchy, textured strokes), a filbert, an angular brush (brilliant for cutting sharp lines or soft botanical marks, one of my personal favorites), a rigger (for fine, controlled lines), and a comber, which is fantastic for blending, softening edges, or flicking in texture like grass, fur or feathers.
Series 2025, Chungking Long Flat (sizes 2, 4, 6)
These are natural bristle brushes. “Chungking” refers to bristles sourced from hogs raised in the Chungking region of China, historically prized as some of the best natural bristle available for oil painting, thanks to their long, deep “flags” (the split ends of the hair). The Long Flat has a looser, more relaxed feel with less spring than a short flat, perfect for loading up with paint and pulling long, expressive, sweeping strokes without needing to keep reloading the brush.
Series 2045, Chungking Filbert (sizes 2, 4, 6)
The filbert shape is a classic, this is the rounded, oval-tipped brush the Old Masters would have reached for. It gives you a broad stroke without the harder edge you get from a flat brush, making it a lovely all-rounder for softer transitions and less rigid mark-making.
Series 2015, Chungking Short Flat (size 8)
Short flats (sometimes called “brights”) are sturdier, with a much stronger snap than their long-flat cousins. That gives you sharper edges and more control, ideal for blocking in shapes or working with thick, impasto paint. They’re a favourite with plein air painters who want some grain and texture in their brushwork.
Series 2055, Chungking Bristle Fan (size 2)
Fan brushes have a distinctive shape, the ferrule spreads the bristles out into a fan, which is brilliant for textural effects like grass, fur, foliage, or soft blending. This style of brush always reminds me of old bob ross painting videos, as he creates sweeping mountain ranges and tree lines. The drier the brush, the more the bristles “splay” out and the more textured your marks become.
Series 2035, Chungking Pointed Round (size 4)
The classic round brush shape, historically used for both drawing in and blocking out. It’s a genuinely versatile shape, good for landscapes, portraits, still life, fine detail work, highlights, and yes, signatures too. Larger rounds lay paint on generously; smaller ones are perfect for the fiddly bits.
Mundy Bristle Blenders (size 1/2″)
These are a newer addition to the Rosemary & Co range, developed in collaboration with renowned oil painter C.W. Mundy. Made from 100% natural hog bristle, they’re designed as a hard-working alternative to the very soft Mundy Mops, pushing and dragging paint around in a different way, and capable of creating both hard edges and completely soft, edgeless transitions depending on how they’re used. Mundy has said they work brilliantly for both laying in a painting and for finishing touches.
Why This Gift Matters so much to us here at BRUT.
For outsider artists, access to genuinely high-quality materials isn’t always a given. For those who have not attended art school for example, may not have been given such tools to play with or perhaps it’s due to day to day financial obligations. For many outsider artists there’s a make do culture of using what’s on hand. It’s really exciting to now have these brushes in our studio for artists to try out and see what impact they may have on their own work. And with rosemary and co’s catalogue on hand, they can choose to purchase these tools for themselves after trying them out. Like taking a test drive.
We’re very grateful to Rosemary & Co for this donation, and we’re planning something special to celebrate it: a dedicated Markmaking workshop / laboratory session at Studio Brut, where we’ll invite outsider artists in to get hands-on and play with these brushes, try shapes and fibres they might not have access to before, and see what happens when great tools meet unfiltered creative instinct. The details are still coming together, and we’re hoping to get our hands on some exciting paints soon to accompany this event, so keep an eye on the studio news for dates and how to get involved.
Thankyou Rosemary & Co for supporting our studio and our growing outsider art community here in Swindon. Find out more about the company and their amazing products over at https://www.rosemaryandco.com