striking the paintbrush in a back and forth motion against the striker bar 12 fig6 this cleaning process removes the paint and thinner from the paintbrush and prepares the paintbrush for the next painting step numerous paintbrush cleanings will leave a mixture of paint and thinner in the bottom of the wastebasket in time the paint will settle to the bottom and the thinner can be removed for reuse the placement of the striker bar 12 near the bottom of the wastebasket 54 as shown in fig2 is suited for an artist who is painting in a sitting position if the artist chooses to paint in a standing position then the paintbrush cleaning apparatus should be removed from the wastebasket 54 bent so as to be in the orientation shown in fig3 and placed back in the wastebasket 54 as shown in fig4 in the position shown in fig3 each of the crossmembers 36 and 40 has an angled contour which forms a pedestal for supporting the apparatus on the bottom of the wastebasket 54 as shown in fig4 in this manner the striker bar 12 is located near the top of the wastebasket so that a standing artist need not bend or stoop radically to clean a paintbrush for reuse with respect to fig4 the paintbrush is cleaned in the same manner as described above by first dipping the paintbrush in a container of thinner not shown.