"I highly recommend Citra Solv as a final brush cleaner for oil painting. It's just a wonderful product! For years I've been concerned about the toxic nature of paint solvents. Some years ago I became highly allergic to them and simply couldn't be around any of them. I used linseed oil or walnut alkyd resin for painting, but I couldn't seem to find a final brush cleaner that wasn't sticky or syrupy. Everything on the market was just too gooey. I had Citra Solv in my kitchen and loved it there and tried it as a brush cleaner in my studio. Wow! It behaves very much like turpentine or turpentine substitute but without any toxic fumes.
Just keep it in a glass jar with a top, swirl the brush around, and then clean the brush with a little plain soap and water to remove all traces of paint and oil. Let the dirty paint settle in the jar, pour off the top into another jar and re use. Voila!"
-Lucy Reitzfeld
Lucy Reitzfeld is a professional painter whose works are exhibited and collected widely throughout the United States. She teaches painting at the School of visual Arts in New York.
