Paint will always win by a long chalk
With her famous line of chalk paints and her 25 books on decorative painting, Annie Sloan has been inspiring people to transform things with paint for decades.
Scrubbing and rubbing, spackling and crackling – the desired look is distressed and imperfect, possibly covered in daubs and doodles, and full of life and colour.
Sloan’s fan base has as many enthusiastic amateurs as upcycling pros, which is comforting when you are expected to paint in front of a living legend. ‘‘The idea is to be creative, and be free,’’ she explained at the start of the workshop I attended with a bunch of other journalists who all painted a wooden letter. ‘‘Just get stuck in.’’
And so began our introduction into the world of Annie Sloan.
Everybody can paint
Sloan insisted you don’t need to be an artist, or even be particularly handy, to turn a piece of furniture into a wonderful creation. The key is to get started and play around.
‘‘Of course a great eye helps,’’ she said, ‘‘and confidence, too. But the the only thing that helps confidence is getting in and doing it.’’ She is delighted by our ham-fisted creations at the end. ‘‘I am feeling really inspired, they’re all wonderful,’’ she enthused.
Ditch the prep
‘‘I do anything to avoid sanding,’’ she said happily, splodging yellow paint onto her own letter ‘A’. Apparently, her chalk paint needs no sanding or priming or prep of any kind; ‘‘you just get in there and start painting.’’
And while her paint does stick to almost anything, this approach has led to people sharing their ‘‘chalk paint fails’’ online, complete with gouged and scratched surfaces and water stains bleeding through the finish. So if you want a perfectly smooth and even surface, don’t ditch the sandpaper just yet.
Imperfect is best
Sloan is not interested in perfection. She told us not to draw with the brush but ‘‘allow the brush to make the mark’’, demonstrating by loading different sized and shaped brushes with paint and squishing and rolling to create abstract blobs and daubs.
Many of Sloan’s paint techniques, including stencilling and stamping, are reminiscent of what you’re taught at primary school. ‘‘Playing with paint has been lost on adults,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s a bit sad, really.’’
Paint anything (and everything)
Sloan encouraged us to try her paint on wood, plastic, laminate, metal and fabric.
She showed us photos of Charleston, the famous home of the Bloomsbury group of painters, which inspired three of her new paint colours. She pointed out the doors, walls and floors covered in abstract patterns, making it seem as if we could attempt the same thing at home.
And if that wasn’t enough encouragement, we went home with a goody bag printed with the instruction to ‘‘Paint
Everything.’’
Finish with wax
Sloan’s paints are sealed, distressed and given lustre by applying her range of waxes afterwards. Clear wax is used to seal the paint and can be buffed to a shine, black and dark wax can be used for an aged look or an industrial finish, while her white wax can be used to achieve a soft, ‘‘coastal’’ look. Manawatu¯ painter Jeanie Simpson was Sloan’s first ever New Zealand based ‘‘painter in residence’’, working with the brand on creative projects and receiving global attention. ‘‘The magic happens when the wax is applied,’’ Simpson told us, expertly applying a waxed bronze to a couple of wooden candlesticks. ‘‘I was a bit sick of these, but now I quite like them again.’’
Black has no place in paint
Sloan mixes all her colours using blends of other colours. She said black has a flatness to it, whereas her colours are clean and have ‘‘more life’’.
‘‘My green has red, the blue has orange, the purple has yellow,’’ she explained. ‘‘It’s a much more fun way to make colours and it is much more sophisticated.’’ It’s also how artists do it, and we are all artists now.