Saturday, January 06, 2007

The Problem with Purple

Tonight I started adding the purple background to my trailer table. From my experience with painting the spinning wheel, I already knew that purple is difficult to apply evenly. On the plywood it is even worse! After struggling to paint just a corner, I was ready to cry. It was looking like I had ruined all that work! The various grains either sucked in the paint without giving time to spread it evenly, or barely took the paint at all. What a mess! I forced myself to say my recently acquired mantra over and over: "It is what it is... It is what it is..." And I forged on. After all, folk art is supposed to be... um... folky, right? And the lighting is kinda dim in the trailer... Happily, I learned from the spinning wheel project that the application of several coats of varnish makes mistakes look like intentional style effects. Really, I meant to do that.. Really..

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know, if you sealed it first... It might not have been so streaky - sorry I didn't think of that first. There are some matte finish acrylic sealers (gesso and the like) that would work well. Regardless, It looks awesome!!

Sharon said...

From the picture, it has the campy look that I think belongs to Violet. That is her name, right?

Purple Fuzzy Mittens said...

Actually, her name is Lavender, because I plan to paint a garden of lavender plants around the outside.

Birdsong said...

It reminds me of many hand-dyed yarns, with lots of subtle variations.