It’s a Mess

Frankly My Dear, It’s a Mess

I’m still painting.   Still.   And not on canvas, not on board, not even on burlap (one of my favorite places to paint).  Oh no.  I’m painting walls.  And trim.  Still have white trim paint under my fingernails (and lately,  just west of the haphazard part in my hair).  I’m painting, and Frankly My Dear, It’s a Mess.  Everything is in Disarray.

My home is my gallery.  It’s where I hang most of my art.   My earliest motive to become an artist was a yearning to beautify my home.  In a sense, learning to paint  with oils (ah, timeless pigment, painterly textures!) was my first significant DIY project.  And it remains my most constant.   It’s kind of ironic to me that probably my next most consistent DIY project has been painting houses.  Walls, trim.   This is the third time.  There is a lot of wall and trim painting to do in houses.   And I’m still learning how to do that better too.  You’d think I’d have it down by now, but I don’t.

In my first home, I learned the magic of caulk.  Who knew there was a way to smooth out imperfect, gapped trim?  My brother in law Mitch knew.   And he shared that knowledge with me.  Carpenter carpenter do your best, painter’s caulk will do the rest.

More recently,  I’ve learned silicone caulk isn’t a good idea, if you’d like to sand afterward.  Sanding silicone is like trying to sand fossilized jello.  The concept and the subject are incompatible.

I’ve also learned that good painting is about patience.  Putting in the time.  Brush, brush, brush.  Wash, wash, wash.  Up and down and up and down ladders.  And it’s about being ok with the mantel decorations piled to the sky on my breakfast table.   Being ok with letting go of half the stuff that I’ve allowed to congregate under the banner of “decoration”….

I’d rather paint with artist’s oils than interior latex.  Rather paint  canvas, board, or burlap than another length of trim.   As I take my paintings down so I can paint the walls behind them, I’m filled with wistfulness.   I don’t have time right now to paint creatively.  And gradually, as the house painting reaches it’s chaotic climax, my gallery looks dreadfully compromised.  I can’t find one of my painting, the Shepherd one.  I’m afraid  I might have chucked it?  No, I couldn’t have.  Maybe I donated it.  Yes. That’s a better thought.

House painting.  It’s a mess.

However.  I remember this part of making a house beautiful, this messy part.  I’ve been here before.  If I keep working, keep brushing and stepping up and down and up and down my ladders, eventually, I’ll be done.  And then I can clean up, hang paintings again, and I will love it.

And then, I’m gonna get out my oils and paint on…I think board this next time.  Maybe with a little burlap.