Po-tae-to, Po-tah-to!

Here is a little something else I have worked on lately. It's not regular drawing or painting but it's still playing with paints so I'll post it here on my art blog anyhow!

When my dad died I took some of the cooking utensils he and my mother had used in their daily life. I've used them often and it keeps their memories close. This potato masher was used so often it only had a bit of the original yellow and black paint on it when I got it. After so many years and a trip through the dishwasher even the last bits of paint disappeared. I decided it wouldn't bother the memories I have on bit by redoing the paint. I didn't even worry about using the same colors. In my mind I can see my dad mashing the potatoes no matter what.

  Although for nearly 30 years I've been a yellow and blue person (with mandatory touches of pink, white and green), I've changed over the last few years to liking red and yellow (preferably with touches of blue, green or others) so I painted this to go with my new taste in color. I used acrylic paints to paint it yellow and red with a touch of green. This goes with my kitchen pretty well although there is also a rusty red in the kitchen. (.I've got enough of both now for a thorough blending of the reds). To top it off with a nice shiny, hard finish I used Delta Air-Dry PermEnamel Clear Gloss Glaze which goes on thick and smooths out like glass.

Now I've got Dad's masher to use and to look fun in my kitchen. If Mom's rolling pen ever loses the green paint on the handles, it'll get a new paint job too! I'll never beat what my grandma did to her old aluminum kettle to keep it going though. She lost the knob on the lid so stuck a prune on the screw and let it dry. It's still there (I know because I have the kettle as one of my memory pieces) after more than 50 years!