Not Painting by the Numbers in Athens

David Bryant always waned to paint with clay the interior walls of the Pulaski Heights house he shares with his wife, Cassie Drennon Bryant. Red Georgia clay. But somehow, he never got around to it.

Until, that is, the house was being remodeled. Walls disappeared, rooms expanded, with one wall made of sheetrock and the other of plaster. Suddenly there was a real need for a uniform paint job to tie everything together.

And guess what? The construction crew had created a very large pile of red clay in the yard, perfect for making into paint.

Rather than proceed on his own, David solicited the help of Athens artist Terry Rowlett, who messes with paint on a regular basis and who knew lots about color and making it. As the accompanying video shows, he taught David how you crush the clay between slabs of granite and then sift it through a screen to get a fine, almost powder-like red clay.

The two mixed the clay with polyurethane and then started painting. They slathered with the mud pie some cotton shirts bought at the Potter's House and started slapping the paint on the walls.

"Once we started, we couldn't stop," said David. "We had to keep going before it dried out."

They settled on the size of a circular motion they would use and did most of the living room in about four hours, Cassie said, from a post all the way around to a fireplace three walls away. Stopping meant leaving a seam, and they didn't want to do that.

The result is gorgeous, deep red walls that completely cozy-i-fy the living room and front room of the house. Visitors routinely comment on the room's warmth.

"I wondered if maybe we should use top soil on another room," said Cassie. "With all this talk about local, you can't get more local than your own yard."

Oh, one bit of advice from David. If you're going to try this, be sure to use slow-drying polyurethane. He said that four hours after he and Terry finished, the walls were dry. That seems pretty fast.