finally painted my mom's old kitchen table from memory and got it right
I've been trying to paint that scratched-up yellow Formica table my mom had in the 90s for like three years now. The one where I did homework and she paid bills and we ate cereal at 10pm because nobody felt like cooking. Every attempt came out stiff or too sentimental.
Last night I just went at it loose, no sketching, just blocked in the yellow and let the scratches happen with a dry brush. Painted the little chip by the corner where my brother threw a toy truck. Put a salt shaker on it because she always left one out. And it's just. Right. My husband came in and said "that's your mom's kitchen" without me telling him what it was.
I don't know why that hit me so hard. Maybe because I feel like I finally painted something only I could paint. Anyway just wanted to share with people who get it. 🥲
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The salt shaker is what got me. That's the kind of detail a photograph never thinks to save. I think that's why it works, you painted the feeling of being at that table, not the way it looked. Your body knew the weight of it.
yeah that's the thing with memory painting, your hand just puts stuff where it goes and you don't question it. the chip from the toy truck is what got me. no camera would ever frame that as the point but it's the whole point.
That's really kind of you to say. And you're right about photographs, I've got a million photos of that kitchen and none of them have that salt shaker in them. It was just always there, you know? The kind of thing you stop seeing until you sit down to paint it and your hand goes "this belongs here." Thanks for noticing that detail, it means a lot.