Reflections on painting

I woke up sore. I turned the alarm off the night before, so rather than my usual 4:30am wakeup, it was 6:45am when I surfaced. It was not a smooth exit from bed, gone was the usual spring in my step. Instead, I slowly got up, waiting for my bones to wake up and move. Despite the soreness, I was excited. The painting was going well. I was excited to begin another full day of this work. Slowly heading to the coffee machine, I made a long black, headed outside, and spent some extended time reading whilst really savouring this mornings coffee. To me it was very relaxing to spend 40 minutes diving into a book, slowly sipping my coffee. Once it was all done, I got my painting clothes on, hopped in the car, and headed back to our place to continue the work. 

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This past week we painted the interior of our house, moving from a cream colour to white. 

We had a lot of fun looking at the various colours and ultimately decided on the classic white-on-white colour for our walls – or what I like to think of as the colour white. Who knew that there were so many variations of colours? Not me, that’s for sure. I feel like that person that wants milk that taste like milk.

This was the first time I had really given painting a go and for an extended period of time. Ultimately, I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the process. The days were long and hard, and they also came with a great sense of accomplishment and achievement. Whilst the body was sore at the end of each day and upon waking in the morning, the mind was active, I was alert, and I was excited for each day and to continue painting the inside of our house. 

It wasn’t just a week of painting. There was a lot that happened to lead us up to this week of doing. Thankfully, our family and some friends were very generous with their time, so we had an extra six pairs of hands over the long weekend. We prepared the weekend before by soaping all of the walls, and getting all of the supplies ready. When everyone arrived, the paint was ready to be used, we had lots of brushes and rollers, and we were able to get to work. 

Painting will unfold at its own pace. Whilst I like to be efficient and get things done, I had to take a step back at times and let nature run its course. It didn’t matter how quickly I might paint an architrave when the coat of paint needs two hours to dry. You can’t start the second coat early. I had to follow the rhythms of time, painting some areas, keeping track of when I could return for a follow up coat, and heading to other areas. Of doing some cleaning during down time. It unfolded as it unfolded. As such, you may as well enjoy the process and be in the moment, of going with the rhythm rather than rushing. Take the time with the extra brush stroke, make sure that the feather approach is even, that you do a final roll to remove any excess paint to avoid any pooling. Life also needs to fit within this as well. We still need to eat, to take the garbage out, to mow the lawn, to get groceries. Study still needs to happen. Assignments still need to be submitted.

As we were on a different schedule, the routine of the day also changed. Every few months it’s good to change things up, even if it’s temporary, to give yourself a visible change so you can pay attention in different ways to your day. I’d been working pretty hard at the gym this year so decided that it would be good to have a week off to let the body rest and recover whilst I painted. This turned out to be a very wise decision given how sore I was. Nonetheless, not waking up early was an instant change to the rhythm of my day, one that brought a sense of appreciation to this temporary change of being able to sleep in and start the day at a slower pace. My days consisted of waking up later, enjoying a long coffee over a book, painting, having a nice morning coffee and lunch, painting some more, heading back to the in-laws, having dinner, going to bed early. 

Painting, it turns out, is more than just moving a brush back and forth. There were a lot of different skills I got to learn and develop. For starters, and as I mentioned above, painting will unfold at its own pace, so patience and slowing down were something I had to focus on. It was a nice chance of pace though, and having the week off from work took away any of the rushed feelings that may exist with trying to fit various things in. With painting, I spent a lot of time with both the brush and roller. I also used the drill to remove and replace fixtures, and used the sander to roughen up the doors so we could get the gloss paint on. We also changed the layout up a bit when putting the furniture back, so I know have a bit of experience in interior decoration. It’s interesting how moving a few things one meter to the left here and there can really open up a space. 

The week of painting brought about a sense of calmness as well. In some ways this is tied into having to surrender some expectations and going with the flow of nature. The work is quite repetitive, which is quite calming. Move the brush back and forth. Push the roller up and down. Be alone with your thoughts, or laugh at random conversations with others. Gone is having to concentrate intensely to figure something out, or having to regularly check emails incase someone has sent you something ‘urgent.’ It’s just you and the wall, making progress that unfolds in its own time, followed by relaxing breaks with a coffee and good company. Not only that, but I felt completely worked at the end of the day. Muscles were sore as they were used In different ways. I was tired. Yet I was also woke with a great sense of accomplishment. 

As Kaladin says in Words of Radiance, journey before destination. The enjoyment that I experience was in large part because of the act of doing. Doing is the journey. Whilst I am thrilled with the outcome, the destination, in some ways I wish I was still on the journey as it was a lot of fun. We need to savour the moments whilst we are in them. It will, nature willing, be many years before we need to paint again. I got to work closely alongside both my dad and my father-in-law. I got to spent a lot of time with my mum as we worked to clean up after painting, to move a lot of the furniture back. They were really fun moments. With luck, I’ll be able to experience them again. Perhaps not. That’s why we have to savour these in the moment when they are happening. To build these memories and experiences. 

I did feel daunted prior to starting this project. I’d never painted. I didn’t know where to begin. Luckily, I had guidance from a lot of people. We accomplished a lot in the nine days. We can step into then unknown and do hard things. I know this. We know this. We need to remind ourselves by regularly doing hard things. 

To make progress, we could only do a few things at a time. We had to limit our open projects so we could close them out. That meant we have a list of future projects and items to complete as part of Phase 2 and Phase 3 of our painting journey. The interior of the laundry cupboard needs to be painted. This will happen once everything else is done, the furniture is back upstairs, so we have room in the garage to temporarily move everything to. The inside of the garage itself also needs a fresh coat. To happen at another time. It’s the least important thing and will happen last. Fixing the patio is more important, and will be a project we move into an open stage in the coming months.

It was a great week, full of lots of laughs, learnings, and memories. Here’s to the next project.