Now that the decorator has left, having finished repainting the living room, we have spent the day restoring order there. My wife has put the glassware back in the cabinet, and I have restored the books to their shelves. At the end of the day all we need now is the delivery of the new carpet. It’s been an interesting experience, for several reasons.
Although it has been in retirement for several years I decided to reinstate our old hi-fi system, so that we can listen to our collection of LPs again. (It was decommissioned after we last decorated the room, and that was a few years back.) It is a good step. There are several of my favourite artists or composers I have not been able to hear for God knows how long. The first thing I did was resurrect a disc of Barbara Hendricks, but there is a load of stuff there, going back to the ‘sixties and Sandy Brown and his All Stars.* My wife, I think, is looking forward to reacquainting herself with Kenny Ball. (Yes: that was our taste way back then.) Hours of happy fun!
The day has not been without its risks. I decided to clean and polish the wooden furniture. This seemed like a good idea at the time. Certainly the cleaning bit was well overdue. (We are not exactly house-proud under normal circumstances.) The trouble is, however, that spray-on polish does not only go onto the furniture. Some of it went onto the wooden floor, which rapidly became quite highly polished. Walking over it also meant that the soles of our shoes also acquired a gloss they had not had previously. As a consequence crossing the living room has become a high-risk activity. It’s a pity that our newly recovered music does not include The Skaters’ Waltz!
Another interesting result of the experience is that it has been possible to reconsider which pictures to put on the walls. After they have been up there for some time I’m afraid that we tend no longer to actually look at the pictures. They become just part of the wall. My wife insisted straight away on the return of a couple of her favourites with have been “resting” for some time now. I have had a good rummage in my racks and hauled out three which I really have not looked at properly for years. I have decided that it is an encouraging thing to do. OK: there is that risk (mentioned a couple of posts back) that I will compare the work I am doing now unfavourably with stuff I produced in the past. The other side of the coin, however, is the realisation that in the big exhibition I am committed to in the summer, there will be a choice of material to choose from which I feel will actually do me credit.
While dinner was cooking I have to admit I was so knackered that I actually fell asleep on the sofa. My intention had been to spend some more time reading Kenneth Clark’s book on landscape. Before I nodded off I had read enough to appreciate that he did have an amazing range of knowledge of the history of art. I do not always agree with his views about art, but I do have to recognise that if anybody is going to argue with him they have to do their homework!
*Bet you’ve never heard of them. They were a Glasgow-based trad jazz group. Wonderful stuff!