Materials
Painter's canvas of linen
As to the painter’s canvasses I use, the canvas I will order for you a specially, I work with an outstanding company that also makes canvasses for example ‘het Palace on the Dam’ (the prior ‘home’ of Rembrandts ‘Night-watch’. This company is specialized in making large canvasses and offer a great scale of different textured linnen. I solely work with their professional linen because of its specific woven texture, thickness and strength. They are also the inventors of a special profile that has a maximum stiffness to it but is still relatively light. For this they have chosen Aluminium since this is the only material that is strong enough to support the forces that are exerted on a stretcher to absorb. In relation to timber it has a much larger (bending) rigidity, and is of course not affected by temperature or humidity changes.
Very high concentration of pigments
The paints I use are mostly acrylic and also have an outstanding quality; they have a very high concentration of pigments so the color intensity of oil is equaled. They also do not dry darker as normal quality do, nor do they lose volume and you can see the immediate effect of the paint color while painting. The beautiful hue of color tones such as in oil is in the same range.
Brushes wear
The brushes I use most are made out of Sable Hair (also used by make-up artists), the resilient marten hair is a gentle yet highly elastic hair type. This hair has the ability to take and hold paint and water very well. It retains its flexibility and is of high quality. Despite the brushes wear much faster (they are worn out after one painting) than for example synthetic hair, they are for me the perfect tools and paint brilliantly.
The wide flat brushes I use for the large surfaces and the various transparent layers are often made of bristle and synthetic hair.