Painting the Roses Red!

Painting is an art – even when you’re just painting the house. I am awful at painting, but I find it relaxing. Do you? My mother paints. My grandmother paints. Mother has painted furniture, decorative boxes, and walls. My grandmother painted only furniture and walls to the best of my knowledge. She was always painting some room in her house or maybe in ours. She also bought old furniture. Then she would stain it or paint it to match her newly painted walls. Oh, and when I was little, Mother offered to paint our rooms any way we wanted them.

The boys liked red, white and blue. They were our school colors. So they got it. My sister and I loved the outdoors and fancied ourselves to be little women. We asked for the room to look like a greenhouse. We got it, too! Mother painted our walls light green. We got built-in white cabinets with arches. Then Mother painted beautiful green vines with purple flowers on the cabinet dividers. What a perfect room for little girls.

Painting must be in my genes. I had a great grandmother, on my mother’s side, who painted. Everyone in the family seems to have at least one of Gram’s paintings on our walls. Gram painted bluebonnets and stilllifes of flowers and Texas landscapes. Not exactly great art, but she’s my great grandmother, so I like having one on the wall.

When I was a little girl, I started messing around with watercolors. You know, in the U.S. we seem to assume that any child can learn a little art. But that’s not true. Art supplies cost money, but we were lucky. After some watercolors, I went on to oils and acrylics. I still paint a little with all three. It just depends on my mood. I guess if I were a real artist I’d specialize, but I’m just playing and having fun.

My painting is often abstract. I use the colors that fit my mood. Sometimes if I’m excited about something, it’s red, yellow & orange. If I’m feeling meditative and calm, maybe purples & blues. I’ve tried to paint Texas landscapes like my great grandmother. Mine aren’t nearly as good as hers, but wouldn’t it be funny if some day my great grandchildren hung one on their wall just to remind them of family? I’ll bet your great grandchildren will do that with yours, too!

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About this author -

Delia Mettarod has been dabbling with paints since she was a little girl. She has painted everything from watercolor abstracts to custom walls for special rooms. You can read more articles about painting at http://www.whitcombpainting.com

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