How absolutely delicious it is to paint with oil based household gloss paint. At the moment in the studio, among other things, I have been painting a shelf with pink household gloss. The glide of the brush is so satisfying, the way the gloss paint pools and unavoidably drips in areas is so evocative of the white glossed windowsills of my 70s childhood. Back then, bored as I often was as more or less an only child, (my sister had married when I was very young), I would relish sinking my teeth into a highly glossed windowsill in my room while my parents entertained the relatives next door, or into the varnished pews of our village church while we dutifully knelt in prayer. I cannot now see or touch glossed windowsills or wooden church pews without my teeth feeling on edge and the taste of the painted and varnished wood as it gave satisfyingly under my bite filling my mind. Hopefully the lead hasn’t left any lasting damage!
