Cleaning brushes

[rizzok72]

This is great, I like many of the methods suggested here.

Dave, you mentioned:

“Rinse as much paint out of your brushes as possible in jam-jars, and let the pigment settle out – decant off the water (which you can then flush down the drain), and collect the pigment slurry to dispose of as solid waste.”

What exactly is your process for collecting the pigment….in other words, once the pigment has settled, what do you do/how do you do it to seperate it. I’d like to do this, and want to know what I need to get (I already have jars, just don’t know what type of ‘screen’ or ‘filter’ you use)…

Thanks!
Steve

[FONT=Georgia]Steve Kohr Fine Art
[FONT=Georgia]Website [FONT=Georgia]Blog [FONT=Georgia]Facebook
"Wag more, bark less"

[acadianartist]

I’ll say it again:

Rinse as much paint out of your brushes as possible in jam-jars,

and let the pigment settle out

– decant off the water (which you can then flush down the drain),

and collect the pigment slurry to dispose of as solid waste.

This has been an extremely informative thread for me as I do take the environment very seriously. We live in the country and have our own well and septic tank so what we pour down the drain stays literally in our own backyard. I avoid cadmiums and cobalts and opt for the hues instead, though I know they are probably not as nice.

However, it seems like a problem to collect the sludge and dispose of it. I always have a cupboard full of plastic containers from yogourt, cream cheese, etc. which could simply be disposed of with the other hazardous waste. A good way to recycle those containers – let it dry completely, cover it, label it, and it’s good to go.. I wonder if you could re-use the same container with the hardened paint at the bottom… until the sludge got too high up to use.

One thing that strikes me though, is that everyone keeps talking about wiping off paint on paper towels. These will obviously end up in the garbage right? How is that environmentally sound? But if I have to dispose of every last dab of paint, paper towels, rags, dried up paint, etc. as hazardous waste, won’t that create a lot of waste? :confused:

[FONT=Palatino Linotype]Chantal (C & C always welcome)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/102840288@N03/

[acadianartist]

I’m even more confused after reading this about Cerulean blue hue on the Artisan website… I thought hues were better, but I guess I was wrong:

WINSOR & NEWTON ARTISAN WATER MIXABLE OIL COLOUR CERULEAN BLUE HUE
Dangerous for the
environment
RISK PHRASES
R51/53 Toxic to aquatic organisms, may cause long-term adverse effects in the aquatic
environment.
SAFETY PHRASES
S61 Avoid release to the environment. Refer to special instructions/safety data sheets.

[FONT=Palatino Linotype]Chantal (C & C always welcome)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/102840288@N03/

[acadianartist]

Here is the data sheet on all other colours:

2 COMPOSITION/INFORMATION ON INGREDIENTS
COMPOSITION COMMENTS
No ingredients classified as hazardous
3 HAZARDS IDENTIFICATION
Not regarded as a health or environmental hazard under current legislation.

TITANIUM WHITE:

15 REGULATORY INFORMATION
LABELLING
Dangerous for the
environment
RISK PHRASES
R51/53 Toxic to aquatic organisms, may cause long-term adverse effects in the aquatic
environment.
SAFETY PHRASES
S61 Avoid release to the environment. Refer to special instructions/safety data sheets.

And ZINC WHITE:

15 REGULATORY INFORMATION
LABELLING
Dangerous for the
environment
RISK PHRASES
R50/53 Very toxic to aquatic organisms, may cause long-term adverse effects in the aquatic
environment.
SAFETY PHRASES
S61 Avoid release to the environment. Refer to special instructions/safety data sheets.

Anyone have a substitute for white?

[FONT=Palatino Linotype]Chantal (C & C always welcome)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/102840288@N03/

[catchafairy]

Chantal, I just caught the end of this thread.

This info makes me want to give up oil painting and stick with pastels.

It’s ALL toxic!

I have grave concerns about painting with this stuff after reading your posts.

[stapeliad Moderator, NYC]

If i may say, this is a bit alarmist.
If you use your materials in a proper responsible way you’ll be fine and have minimal impact to the environment.

Don’t dump your wastewater/solvent down the drain, don’t eat your paint, wipe out pigment sediment with a paper towel and put it in the recycle bin.

Pastels use many of the same pigments as oil paint.

Lady Mars Orange Marmalade Stapleford
Moderator: OIls, Pastels, Plein Air
Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. -Oscar Wilde

[dcorc]

If i may say, this is a bit alarmist.
If you use your materials in a proper responsible way you’ll be fine and have minimal impact to the environment.

Don’t dump your wastewater/solvent down the drain, don’t eat your paint, wipe out pigment sediment with a paper towel and put it in the recycle bin.

Pastels use many of the same pigments as oil paint.

Quoted for emphasis!

Absolutely. It IS alarmist.

Again:

If you use your materials in a proper responsible way you’ll be fine and have minimal impact to the environment.

Don’t dump your wastewater/solvent down the drain, don’t eat your paint, wipe out pigment sediment with a paper towel and put it in the recycle bin.

Dave

davecorcoran.co.uk

[acadianartist]

Ok, so I don’t wash my wastewater down the drain anymore. After I swish the brushes around in it for a while to get most of the paint off, I let it dry in a plastic container. There is still SOME paint left on the brushes when I wash them in the sinnk, but not as much. Dried paint on rags and disposable palette sheets all go into my hazardous waste bin. But I’ve been told by the hazardous waste people that dry paint on rags can just go in the regular landfill (I use rags, not paper towels – you’d be amazed how many holes can form in the socks 4 people in a household! I’ll use anything, even old underwear, I’ve never run out of old clothes to cut up into rags). Maybe our hazardous waste people here are not really up on their reading… or maybe that’s where it ends up anyway. Either way, doesn’t it all go into the ground eventually? Just because it doesn’t go in my backyard, doesn’t mean I can’t be concerned about it!

I certainly do not mean to be alarmist. I was just trying to determine how I could make better choices in the kind of paint I buy as well as establish the best way to clean my brushes. Just because people have always done things a certain way doesn’t mean we can’t think about other possible ways to do things. Common sense is great, but it’s hard to measure whereas specific guidelines are more objective.

[FONT=Palatino Linotype]Chantal (C & C always welcome)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/102840288@N03/

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