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Golden Roses
Oil on panel, 12x9 |
Our new puppy escaped his kennel while I was at an engineering field trip with my youngest son today. After pulling jackets off the back of my bedroom door, shutting the door in the process, he continued on to knocking over drying paintings. A couple of the most recent forsythia paintings were knocked down, and it appears that he licked all of the cad yellow paint off - but not before getting it on his feet. All over my light carpeting is the haze and footprints of cad yellow and green. After hours of scrubbing, it looks like it is all going to come up. For those of you who may one day have to face this issue - here is my secret to sure removal. Using Dawn liquid dishwashing detergent (ONLY DAWN), pour small amounts into your hand and spread over the affected areas - in my case, all exposed carpet. Let this sit for a while to soak into the paint - I waited over an hour. Using a dry, old kitchen towel, start rubbing at the spots. If you have thick clumps, you must first scrape that up with something like a credit card, leaving the smallest possible amount on the carpet. Keep moving to clean spots on the towel to work out the stains, using a dirty spot just moves the paint back onto the carpet. Reapply the soap with your hand as needed. I let the soap soak in each time for awhile before re-scrubbing. Finally, when all paint seems to be gone, use a clean towel dampened with water to lift out the soap in your carpet. I will be using a carpet cleaner with clear water only to get out the soap. DO NOT ADD WATER until ALL paint is gone!! I have even removed alizarin crimson from my carpet this way (yes, another knocked over painting). When you paint as much as I do, there are bound to be a couple of mishaps....This also works for paint on your clothes, even if you don't find it for several days. I always keep a small container of dawn in my plein air kit - just in case! So, this is the 471st painting in as many days, and a little therapy for me after my big cleaning adventure. Well, actually, three areas are soaking right now, waiting for my return. Just another day in paradise.
Oh my goodness, a puppy catastrophe! (I think you should post photos of the offender, so we can be sure to keep any cups of liquid out of reach when he appears!) That's terrific you're able to clean it all successfully. And I always remember they used Dawn for effectively removing oil from the seabirds after the Exxon Valdez.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, beautiful flowers! The color is really vibrant and gorgeous, and the style of the roses is so cool!
While the yellow roses are simply gorgeous, your advice about cleanups is probably the most valuable any of us could get. Who hasn't had a paint accident? I have heard about using Dawn for other things and always the advice is: only Dawn. I wonder what it has that other detergents don't have.
ReplyDeletePuppys do get messy sometime, tee hee. Love your style of work. Those roses are awesome.:)
ReplyDeleteoh dear, oh dear, what a nightmare! But your roses look beautiful!
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