In Conversation With Pro Arte

Peter Thompson, the Managing Director of Pro Arte and his son, Johnny Thompson, the company’s Marketing Lead, visited us at the Jackson’s Studio to share the story of how the company began, the intricate process behind making traditional handmade brushes, and the evolution of their innovative synthetic brush ranges.

Above image: Peter Thompson, Managing Director of Pro Arte Limited

In Conversation With Pro Arte

Contents

0:00 Introduction

0:13 Can you tell us about how Pro Arte was founded?

1:04 Where does the name Pro Arte come from?

1:39 Why did Roy Thompson decide to focus on artists’ brushes?

2:27 How did the company expand to become one of the leading brush manufacturers today?

3:36 How did Pro Arte start developing their own brushes?

4:28 What was the first brush developed by Pro Arte?

5:08 How have the types of brushes produced evolved over time?

6:18 Pro Arte is very much a family-run business, how did you and your son get involved?

7:47 How have you and Johnny continued and built upon Roy’s original mission?

8:52 Can you describe how a quality brush is made?

10:07 How are brush hairs cut and assembled?

11:01 How important is the ferrule in terms of performance and longevity?

12:03 Can you tell us more about the mechanics of a brush, in terms of shape, hair width, and length?

12:45 How important is the handle design and what materials do you use?

13:56 What does a typical working day look like at Pro Arte?

14:54 Could you describe the various roles within the company?

16:04 What is the company’s approach to the environment and animal welfare?

18:13 Can you talk about your views on sable, and how Pro Arte developed its Renaissance range?

20:55 What is your advice on cleaning and caring for brushes?

23:19 Can you tell us about your relationship with artists and any other projects you’re involved with?

24:44 What does the future hold for Pro Arte?

28:28 Credits

Can you tell us how Pro Arte started and the background of your father Roy Thompson who founded the company?

My father founded Pro Arte. With a background in art and a love for painting, he was a good artist who was fortunate enough to land a job with Winsor & Newton. That’s how it all started. He aspired to become their sales manager, and he was always led to believe that opportunity would be available to him. However, the promotion never came, and that became a major source of frustration. So, in his early middle age, he decided to break away and start his own company, using the experience he gained selling materials. With his deep knowledge of art and a particular understanding of brushes, he had the expertise to make it work.

A lot of the time, people get it completely wrong. It’s spelled Pro Arte and it comes from Latin. Many people pronounce it Pro Art, especially in Yorkshire, where they say ‘Pro Art’. The idea came from my mother, she was very good with languages and had studied Latin. When my parents were thinking of a name for the company, my father wanted something that represented art, something meaningful. It was my mother who came up with Pro Arte, which is Latin for art.

Roy Thompson. Photograph courtesy of Pro Arte.

What was Roy’s vision and why did he choose artists’ brushes in particular?

My father’s vision for artist brushes came from his long experience with Winsor & Newton. He felt they weren’t selling brushes properly. Many of the brushes were kept behind counters, but as a salesman, he realized that to sell a product, you have to market it well and display it properly. The beauty of brushes, from a marketing perspective, is that they’re lightweight, compact, and easy to ship to customers. As an artist, he had a deep love for brushes because they’re the link between the paint and the canvas. It’s a tactile product, and he understood it well because he was an accomplished artist.

The Pro Arte factory in Skipton, North Yorkshire.

Can you tell us how the company’s humble beginnings expanded to be one of the leading and innovative brush manufacturers today?

When my father left Winsor & Newton and decided to go alone selling artist brushes, he converted a large loft space in the bungalow we lived in, in Leeds. That was the start of it all. At the time, synthetics hadn’t been developed and weren’t available on the market. Good brush ranges were rare – you’d either use a sable or squirrel brush for watercolour, or a bristle brush for oil painting. In those early days, he didn’t manufacture brushes himself – he didn’t have the knowledge or expertise for that. Instead, he worked with two good UK companies. One produced his more affordable student and craft brushes, while another, under the name Percy P Baker and operating under the name Rekab (which was actually ‘Baker’ backward), helped manufacture the high-end squirrel and Kolinsky sable brushes. That’s really where he made his name.

That’s when I got involved in the business from a manufacturing perspective. The timing was perfect because synthetics were just hitting the market, giving me the chance to develop something completely new. My first step was to work alongside the companies we had already worked with. The big break came when Percy P Baker, the company I mentioned earlier, unfortunately, went bankrupt. Their UK operation fell apart, and that allowed us to step in, bringing in one or two of their factory workers as home workers for us.
 

Painting by Roy Thompson.

Your popular Prolene range was one of the first high quality synthetic brush collections. Tell us about the technology that goes into making synthetic brushes.

The first brush we properly developed was a range called Prolene, a fully synthetic version of sable. The first brushes that we really produced properly were sable and squirrel brushes or all natural hair brushes. But to progress into synthetics, you need a solid understanding of how high-end brushes are made. Having gained the knowledge and expertise in manufacturing traditional brushes, it made sense for us to move forward into the new world of synthetics.

Over the years, we’ve had a few versions of Prolene. It’s the same brush, but it’s just been improved multiple times, and we’re probably on our fourth version now. There have been various advances with synthetic hair over the years. When synthetics first hit the marketplace, many brushmakers would make use of different diameters for different size brushes. We soon realized that instead of using a single diameter for each size, it made more sense to blend different diameters together. This gave the brush a more natural feel, similar to a natural hair brush. We found that worked, but it didn’t apply across the entire range. After some painstaking development, we realized that different blends were needed throughout the size range. So, a range like Prolene, for example, uses five or six different blends depending on the size within the range.

Johnny Thompson.

Pro Arte is very much a family-run business. Can you tell us how you got involved and then later your son?

I suppose, more than anything, it’s a generational thing. My father started the business, and I came in at the right time. But I had a love for it because I watched him build the business, so I grew up with it, just as my son Johnny has. So, again, it’s a generational thing.

Johnny joined Pro Arte to handle the marketing side of things – artist collaborations, social media, blogs, and so on. He’s grown up around brushes. After school, he didn’t want to go to university full-time, so he took a degree apprenticeship. Johnny spent three years learning brush manufacturing while also studying business management at university. Now, he’s in a full-time marketing role at the company.

There have definitely been generational shifts. My father was the first, and then I came into the business, bringing in the manufacturing side. Now, with me coming in, I’ve had the opportunity to bring us up to speed with things like social media and artist connections, areas he didn’t have time for. More recently, my role has been to work with local artists. We know how to make a good brush but we don’t always know how it’s used or why artists choose it. So, part of my role is to engage with small, local artists, understand how and why they use our brushes and use that insight to help guide our product development moving forward.

Can you describe how a brush is made? What is the craftsmanship that goes into making a quality brush and how does this compare with a poor quality one?

The craftsmanship behind a good brush comes down to the brushmaker’s skill in handling fibres. There are many different fibres used, but the key is getting the fill of the brush just right. If it’s too tight, the brush will splay; too slack, the bristles will either fall out or the glue that holds them in place will run through the brush. Getting that balance is the first step in making a good brush.

From there, it’s about shaping the brush correctly. You can really tell the difference between a high quality brush and a poor one. Synthetic hair tends to be pretty consistent, but sable hair has more spring toward the tip of the brush. Some manufacturers may decide to use a shorter length of hair, but that can result in a brush that’s too soft and floppy. We tend to cut quite a bit of hair at the back and use the tip of the brush. While this makes the brush more expensive, it significantly improves the quality.

Shaping the brush hair.

How are brush hairs cut and assembled, and how important is the ferrule in terms of performance and longevity?

Natural hairs are graded by length. For bristle, sable, and squirrel hair, and any natural hair, we can purchase them in different lengths, ranging from around 28 mm to 55 mm. Synthetic hair is a bit different; we can buy it in individual lengths, but we prefer to buy longer lengths because it makes mixing the hair much easier. For some brushes, we hand-mix the hair, but for most, we use a mixing machine, which speeds up the process. It’s more efficient for us to buy longer lengths of synthetic hair because we can mix it more easily. Then, we use a guillotine to cut the hair to the right length when the brushmaker is assembling the individual brush sizes.

The ferrule is vital – it is essentially the go-between between the handle and the actual brush fibres. We use either an aluminium ferrule for longevity or brass that is nickel-plated for higher quality brushes. Both materials are malleable. This is important because, once the brush head or fibres are cemented in place, the ferrule holds everything together. The brush head, which consists of the fibres and ferrule, is then glued onto a wooden handle. Since metal and wood aren’t always compatible, once they’re glued, we run the brushes through a crimping or clenching machine. This process crimps the ferrule onto the handle, giving it a more secure finish.

It’s all about proportion. When you develop a brush, it’s essential to get the proportions right so it has the right spring. The belly has to be in the correct place, and it needs to have a good point. If a brush is too short, it may not carry the colour; if it’s too long, it could be too floppy. It’s really a question of making that brush work for each size. A range of brushes may have 20 different sizes, so they’re not all going to be the same length. You have to make sure that the proportion is absolutely correct.

Hair bundles.

How important is the handle design and what materials do you use?

The handle design is important, especially with larger brushes. When you’re making a small treble zero brush, there’s only so much shape you can add to the handle since it’s so thin and spindly – there’s no way around that. However, one of our recent ranges uses a triangular grip handle, which many people like because it offers better control. Some people really enjoy the feel of the triangular grip. For larger brushes, though, the handles are shaped ergonomically to ensure they feel just right in the hand.

Handles come in slightly different lengths. For most high quality brushes, we tend to use a seven inch handle. But as you go up in size, like with a large size 20 or 24 Proline, we use an eight or nine inch handle. The reason for that is just to give the whole brush some sort of proportion, and it also gives it a nice balance in the hand.

The company is based in a converted traditional Yorkshire wool spinning mill in Skipton. Could you describe this workspace?

We are now based in a Yorkshire mill. The mills were originally built for the wool industry, and they were all about handmade products. We’ve repurposed an old building, and while it comes with its challenges, it’s a good, old-fashioned mill. In Skipton, we’re still making a handmade product, and that’s something we’re really proud of. We have about 20 employees at the mill, spread across three levels, plus an adjoining warehouse. The main manufacturing workspace is on the top floor, where we get natural light through the roof – what they call the northern lights. It’s the perfect space for us.

Inside The Pro Arte factory.

Where does Pro Arte stand on current ethical concerns? What is the company’s approach to the environment and animal welfare?

We strive to be as environmentally friendly as possible. We recycle what we can, and we’re also looking at alternatives to packaging. When it comes to our products, particularly the brush handles, we use wood instead of plastic. We source these handles from a company in Germany that has strong ethical and environmental policies. They’re FSA registered, meaning they come from sustainably managed forests. Additionally, the lacquer used for the handles is water-based rather than oil-based.

We source bristles from various animals, such as pig, goat, pony, and ox hair. These are byproducts from the food industry, meaning the whole animal is used. Squirrel and sable hair is more contentious, as some see it tied to the fashion industry. However, the tails of these animals were originally considered waste, not used in clothing, and brushmakers discovered their value for longer fibres used in brushes. While these animals live naturally, we understand the concerns and have developed alternatives, with synthetic hair being a major development.

Artists in collaboration with Pro Arte. Photograph courtesy of Pro Arte.

You showcase a selection of contemporary artists on your website. Can you tell us more about this relationship and other projects you are involved with?

We’ve always collaborated with high-profile artists, one of them being Ron Ranson. We developed a hake brush with him and the nice thing about collaborating was we improved the brush. As a result, we developed the Pro Arte Ron Ranson Hake brush. Ron’s fast and loose technique, which allowed people to create a painting in just half an hour, made his style accessible and popular. Another collaboration was with Terry Harrison, who created a range of purpose-made brushes for specific tasks. These collaborations have always been an important part of what we do.

Can you tell us what the future holds for Pro Arte? Are there any new products planned?

One of our latest developments is an alternative to black sable. Often, products are created to meet a market need, but sometimes we come across a great handle or fibre and just know we have to use it, like with Bristlene, which resembles bristle beautifully. I’m excited about the future, not just in product development but also in how we connect with artists and use our brushes as tools for creativity. A massive part of my role that I take pride in is focusing on the people who make and use our brushes – it’s not just a product.

Further Reading

Understanding Brush Shape Names, Hair, and Applications

Brush Cleaning Tips For Painters

In Conversation With Anne-Sylvie Godeau of Lutea

The Development of Synthetic Brushes

Shop Pro Arte on jacksonsart.com