I asked God to send me art jobs. Real estate has taken over my life these last few years and my art studio sits languishing at the back of our house, except on the days when grandchildren visit. We have it set up so that there is a pint-sized French easel for them, little aprons for all, and each child has their own watercolor set. There are paper towels and water containers, brushes in special holders...it's my favorite thing to do with them. Young children don't care if their work is museum-worthy. They just love to create. If we adults could hark back to those pell-mell days where we just dove in without a care...we could also find more joy in our days. We're all so serious about making a mistake or messing something up. How about we just throw back our heads laughing and squiggle all over the pages?
I got a request, weeks ago, to restore the art on an antique light fixture. This particular client has a unique shop in Buckhead, a hole in the wall that has been there for many years. He restores all kinds of metal objects and light fixtures, a craft that few know. He has sent me unusual requests in years past...a teeny, tiny oval cartouche from a cup that had to be repainted (it was a picture of a woman, no bigger than the nail on my pinky)...a silver candleabra that looked like silvered branches, he wanted me to make it look like real wood... things like that! This time, it was a smoked-up light fixture that had been through, guess, a fire. It had Asian-inspired artwork on it that was to be re-done with fresh paint. It had to be just the right color to match the old fixture. I did arduous research on colors and paints. It needed to be able to withstand heat from lightbulbs, once it was put back together. I trekked to Atlanta and back, to Hobby Lobby and Michael's to gather materials. There was a specific blue that had to be found. I am the color queen. There's no point in buying pre-mixed colors in those little bottles. Just give me your basic blue, yellow, red and white and I'll mix up my own colors. So for this project I was confident and sat down to paint, after prepping all my surfaces. Pride goeth before the fall. I started with basic blue, then Pthalo blue, Payne's Grey then ultramarine. No manner of mixing was producing the color I needed. I went back to the craft stores and bought everything approximating blue, yes, in those little bottles. I covertly snuck in the store and left with bags of them, my tail tucked between my legs. The wailing and gnashing of teeth began anew, when nothing worked. No one was home when I said aloud, "God, please help me!" I flopped back in my chair and stared out the window. Then I ogled my dining room walls, the most recently painted room in the house. I love this new color, which so happens to be Sherwin Williams Color of the Year for 2020 (there was something good that came out of that unmentionable year) -- Naval SW6244. Not navel like your belly button. Naval like the Navy. I even recovered all the chairs and commissioned 10-foot drapes for the windows with that gorgeous blue in them. After all my blue experimentation, I suddenly realized I was staring at possibly The One for my project. I dashed into my studio and yanked out a can of Naval, stirred it up and dipped a little artist brush in there and smeared it on a ceramic dish. Behold! It was right here all the time! It took me a week to finish, in between my day job and meals and my daily episode of HGTV and my evening interludes with Ken. In fits and starts and lots of Booyah moments when I actually hunkered down to paint, the finished product emerged. I did a happy dance and sent pics to the client. When he conferred with his client and told me they were thrilled, I varnished the whole lot and laid down on the floor and cried.
There's no drama here at all...
🤩
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