paint by numbers

I am not much of an artist. Working with clay, stone, glass or paper mache is not my thing. But I am a pretty decent painter. The sort with a roller, paint can, and painter’s tape. This weekend I am determined to complete a fresh color in the living room, so my spouse can start planning seasonal decorations. The holiday season is just a few weeks away. There are challenges to be overcome, particularly when under the supervision of a couple bored dogs.

Dog hair and dust bunnies. As anybody with dogs knows, dog hair in nooks, crannies, under furniture and behind bookcases is the rule not the exception. I forgot the First Rule. I had swept and vacuumed one side of the living room before putting down drop cloths, I scrubbed the dust from one wail and applied a coat of primer. Moving over to the opposite wall, my artist’s temperament was challenged. I should have cleaned the entire room first before painting. And put the dogs out of the room. Watching to see that neither Dexter nor Comet would brush against the drying paint, nor step into the splotches on the drop cloth had been my focus all day. For many artists, the idea of working in “mixed-media” can be quite rewarding. However, there’s not much of a trend in 2019- 2020 for textured colors using dog hair and dust, or gray-on-white-tile paw prints.

In the late afternoon, it seemed like a good idea to put down the paints and go out for the evening with my spouse. I brought home a book on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essays. Reading a few pages on Transcendentalism again reminds me that my engineering mind is focused on the material world. Fresh paint, clean surfaces, and proper technique. I need to also consider the Ideal. The spiritual side to painting. Delighting my senses. How it helps me perceive the world.

Enough of that. I have a schedule to keep.