I was squeezing the last remnants of paint from a tube the other day and found myself thinking about the man who made it.
That probably sounds ridiculous to anyone who isn’t an artist.
To be fair, most of what followed was ridiculous too.
There were pliers involved.
A palette knife.
Eventually a Stanley knife.
And, if we’re being completely honest, a small container in the freezer.
But before we get to that part, I should explain why this particular tube of paint was so difficult to throw away.
Recently, one of my favourite paint manufacturers stopped making their oil paints.
I knew it was coming, I’d known for a while. The founder had passed away and, in the end, economics won.
I was genuinely saddened by the news.
Over the years I had spoken with him several times on the phone whenever I had questions about his products. If he was available, he would often come to the phone himself. He was not a young man, but he had the most beautiful voice. Deep, warm and thoughtful. Sometimes I was so engrossed in the conversation that I almost forgot why I’d called in the first place.
Before the paints became impossible to find, I began buying whatever stock I could locate. Art shops, old stockrooms, forgotten shelves. Whenever I found a tube, I bought it and brought it home.
Now, years later, those tubes are beginning to run out.
Which brings me back to the paint tube.
Every artist has one. Or more than one, to be honest. Actually probably an entire drawer full.
The tube that is supposedly finished, yet somehow continues to yield another brushstroke.
And another.
You roll it from the bottom.
You flatten it.
You squeeze it with increasing determination.
Eventually the pliers come out.
When that no longer works, you scrape around the neck of the tube with a palette knife looking for hidden reserves of pigment.
Then comes the final act of defiance.
The Stanley knife.
The tube is carefully cut open and every remaining scrap of paint is rescued and transferred into a small container. In my case, that container often ends up in the freezer because, after all, they don’t make this pigment anymore.
At this point, most sensible people would have thrown the tube away.
