Getting ready to roll brushes for a ride

The oil tray for storing brushes is very useful, but it is not the sort of thing that you would want to take on an airplane. If your brushes are linseed-oil damp and you need to take them someplace, say on a long journey, what should you do?

One solution is to clean the brushes with a non-drying oil, like olive oil, before taking them on a trip. Once you reach your destination, wash them several times with linseed oil, as with cleaning a brush of paint, to remove the non-drying oil. In practice, this is no problem. The greater danger is if you by accident mix up the linseed oil and olive oil and start painting with the latter. To avoid this, mix a small amount of color into the olive oil (maybe phthalo blue or something) to mark it as something different.

The bamboo rolling mat in the photo above is perfect for moving the brushes safely from place to place.