gesso disaster

These days I paint in a very small studio. Actually, it is a converted 12X12' shed. I've insulated it and put in a window and ran power out to it for an electric heater for winter, and lights and whatever tools I might want to use. Once I put a work table and some shelves and a bunch of paintings and assorted other stuff (like my bicycle) in there, it became a fairly tight but workable space to work in. I recently finished a diptych I painted for a friend of mine, and this afternoon, I planned to prep for a new group of small paintings. A while back I bought a gallon tub of acrylic gesso. This is basically acrylic polymer emulsion, a little white pigment, and some kind of chalky filler stuff they use to give it the right kind of body. I use this to prep surfaces for painting. This particular gesso came in a tub with a lid that required me to snap off a chunk of plastic to open it up. I did this and started to pull the lid open. As I did this, the lid suddenly pulled off faster than it should and I lost my grip on the jug, knocking it to the floor of the studio. Now depending on the maker and I think the age of the gesso, it can have a variety of textures. I've had some that was very thick, and some that was sort of jelly-like - gesso that you could turn upside down, take your time about picking up, and still not have a mess. This gesso was different. It was more liquid than usual, smooth and flowing. About 3/4 of a gallon of the stuff was on the floor of the studio before I could right the tub, spreading across my work area. I scrambled to move away stuff that would be wrecked by the gesso, then grabbed some new canvases and started to prep them from the pool on the floor. I primed every new canvas I had ready to go, and still had a big pool of gesso on the floor. The good news is that the floor is just rough spruce plywood and I don't care about the paint on the floor. I figured the best way to clean up the mess was to spread it on as much floor as I could and let it dry. It's drying now.

I won't go in there for a few days.