Painting the Shrine Room
It's six years since it was last done, so we decided that this year the Shrine Room really had to be painted and this week we finally got around to it. Tuesday afternoon and evening we did the preparation and painted the first half and Wednesday we did the rest.
The part that took the longest was before when we discussed and experimented and finally, eventually, decided on the colour scheme, a subtle shade of off white with a hint of gold, a special mix which I'm happy to say has turned out to be rather splendid but which the photographs don't really do justice to.
It's interesting, watching the thought associations and how your mind moves when you're doing things, especially quiet and simple things. The first job on Tuesday that we all were involved in was the covering with newspapers and dust sheets what we didn't want painted, the floor, the beams and skirting boards, and the big Buddha Rupa that cannot be moved. Hanging the newspaper over the beams and stapling it brought Hema, now an ex Warwick student,to mind. Why? Well Hema did a degree in psychology and was a student of John Pickering, and yonks ago when we first painted the Shrine Room it was John who invented this method of covering the beams. Spreading old newspaper to protect what we didn't want spoilt reminded me too of when I was a student. At Drama Centre where I was in Group One, Yat, our great teacher who we all worshipped, knowing that I was pretty broke, asked me to work for him on a Saturday afternoon polishing his brass and silver and antique furniture. This was a tremendous honour and even more so when on the first day having sat me down and got me started he suddenly appeared with a tray of Earl Grey tea, toast and ginger marmalade for me and then sat chatting. I remember him looking at the newspaper that was spread out in front of me with the polish and bits and pieces on it and glancing at some snatches of old news he made some remark about the only time he read the newspaper being when he used it for something else like this. And there were we occasionally pausing for a quick read of some nonsense or other! A couple of times yesterday and today I had to remind those who were working with me that you begin at the top - cleaning, painting, whatever - and work down. And again my mind went back to my student days and one summer when to earn some money I worked for a domestic agency going out and cleaning people's houses. I did a few sessions for an elderly Jewish lady in one of those big red brick blocks of flats in Marylebone and when I first went there I didn't really know anything about cleaning and started with the floor and worked up, and she told me off. Perfectly logical really, gravity and all that but I had to be told. I remember too boasting to her that I never read the papers and she told me off about that too. It was the morning when the papers were full of the Great Train Robbery the night before!
Apart from these little mental journeys the painting did get done and well pleased we are with it.
The part that took the longest was before when we discussed and experimented and finally, eventually, decided on the colour scheme, a subtle shade of off white with a hint of gold, a special mix which I'm happy to say has turned out to be rather splendid but which the photographs don't really do justice to.It's interesting, watching the thought associations and how your mind moves when you're doing things, especially quiet and simple things. The first job on Tuesday that we all were involved in was the covering with newspapers and dust sheets what we didn't want painted, the floor, the beams and skirting boards, and the big Buddha Rupa that cannot be moved. Hanging the newspaper over the beams and stapling it brought Hema, now an ex Warwick student,to mind. Why? Well Hema did a degree in psychology and was a student of John Pickering, and yonks ago when we first painted the Shrine Room it was John who invented this method of covering the beams. Spreading old newspaper to protect what we didn't want spoilt reminded me too of when I was a student. At Drama Centre where I was in Group One, Yat, our great teacher who we all worshipped, knowing that I was pretty broke, asked me to work for him on a Saturday afternoon polishing his brass and silver and antique furniture. This was a tremendous honour and even more so when on the first day having sat me down and got me started he suddenly appeared with a tray of Earl Grey tea, toast and ginger marmalade for me and then sat chatting. I remember him looking at the newspaper that was spread out in front of me with the polish and bits and pieces on it and glancing at some snatches of old news he made some remark about the only time he read the newspaper being when he used it for something else like this. And there were we occasionally pausing for a quick read of some nonsense or other! A couple of times yesterday and today I had to remind those who were working with me that you begin at the top - cleaning, painting, whatever - and work down. And again my mind went back to my student days and one summer when to earn some money I worked for a domestic agency going out and cleaning people's houses. I did a few sessions for an elderly Jewish lady in one of those big red brick blocks of flats in Marylebone and when I first went there I didn't really know anything about cleaning and started with the floor and worked up, and she told me off. Perfectly logical really, gravity and all that but I had to be told. I remember too boasting to her that I never read the papers and she told me off about that too. It was the morning when the papers were full of the Great Train Robbery the night before!
Apart from these little mental journeys the painting did get done and well pleased we are with it.
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