Introducing - Guest Painting Expert, and old hag, Tawn Gale

As a child I can remember telling people I wanted to be an Art Teacher when I grew up.

I just LOVED that time in school when you got to eat paste…I mean, use paste, and paint and crayons and “stuff”. It was the best time of the day!! No math (little did I know percentages and fractions were involved in creating new colors), no rules (okay…most of the time)…and loads of fun!!

I’ve always loved “art”. Doing, seeing, touching, experiencing. I knew I wanted that in my life. Always.

My family, didn’t think it was the best idea (”…who makes a living drawing things?”) but I was persistant. I got my Bachelors degree from the University of Arizona in Fine Arts and taught art to grades K-8 for 10 years before “retiring” to work with Debra Conrad “THAT Painter Lady”.

Messing With Walls Is A Blast!

Teaching art was great - terrific! But messing with peoples walls? It was a blast!

I found I used the same tools working on a canvas as I did working on walls. Tubes of paint, sponges, watercolor pencils, rags, a variety of brushes and even “combs” followed me from the classroom to the “business” (with Debra) of painting walls for children’s rooms as well as corporations.

But things were definitely different outside the classroom. There were times, like Debra, when I had some odd colors in my hair when I went to pick up my daughter from school and I lost more than one cell phone to a bucket of paint

(Helpful hint #1 - don’t put it in the front top pocket of your painter overalls and then bend over the bucket).

But painting every day, and being able to give people that “oooohhh!!” effect in their homes or offices has been - over all - a blast!! I loved every moment of it.

I was a Teenage Hippie-Dippie…

Growing up my room was the only one with color and I was the one that wanted to paint it!

In the early 70’s it was Turquoise blue with lime green accents. Very hippie-dippie! I was known as the family artist.

Oh sure, it didn’t apply just to the walls in my room. I was bumper painter for the old GMC and other items around the farm (tractors, trailers, bookcases created by my father, - I don’t think he knew he was a sculpture then - ).

Living The Dream…

Never did I imagine that one day I would get to use my so called “talent” to bring color and expression into other peoples’ homes and businesses. Wow!! Talk about living the dream!

I use to LOVE helping people change their “boring white walls” in to beautiful works of art. And I especially loved adding those little unexpected extra details to make it special and specific to each person.

Once during a large job (painting two bedrooms where the dividing wall had been removed to create one big bedroom for two boys) Debra and I were almost done with a 360 degree mural “under the sea” - there were sharks, dolphins, clown fish, trigger fish, seaweed, seahorses, on and on – when the mother asked how the youngest son like it (keep in mind he’s 4ish).

He said it was okay, he liked the dolphins and stuff but what he really wanted was a tow truck!

Never wanting to leave a child disappointed I whipped out my paint brushes and painted a small truck into the mural.

I know, I know..you’re going “WHAT?! It’s an underwater seascape!”

I painted a small truck, that looked like a “Matchbox” car, and made it appear as though it had just been “accidentally” dropped in the water and had just sunk to the bottom.

To top it off I wrote the child’s name on the side as part of the business name the trucking company. Bubbles appeared to rise up from the truck as it softly landed on the sandy bottom of the ocean. And the truck was painted right at the chest level for the 4 year old so as he lay in his bed he could look over, every night, and see his truck.

My passion lies in giving back. To my community. To my family. To my friends. To my clients.

They’ve given me the opportunity to “play” with paint so I like to give them something to look forward to when they see their “art work”.

• Turning a basic boring (dull) kitchen in to a Tuscan Cocina.

• Taking those “boring white walls” and making them look like brushed suede on a horse ranch.

• Now when they walk in their laundry room there’s a hole in the ceiling and some vines creeping in.

• The best part is when a client walks in and says, “Wow!!” That’s when I know I’m done.

Well, mostly…I still have to leave that special little something that they don’t expect.

Tawn Gale has been an artist, art teacher, faux finisher and muralist for 40 years a long time.