photo by Hannah Reel

Painter Lloyd Fleming uses a small roller to paint the woodwork in the kitchen of a home on Arlington Avenue Saturday afternoon.

Fleming has been painting houses for 25 years

By Adam Koob (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Monday, August 31, 2009

NATCHEZ — When The Dart landed on Arlington Avenue Saturday afternoon Lloyd Fleming was doing what he has been doing for the past 25 years — painting.

For a quarter of a century Fleming has been painting the houses and businesses that make up Natchez.

“I got into painting with my uncle when I got out of high school,” Fleming said. “And I’ve been doing it ever since.”

From there Fleming did work for family and friends until he was eventually ready to start advertising his services.

“So I decided to take it up for a living,” he said. “Now I’ve been doing it too long to start doing anything else. But I love it.”

Saturday Fleming was working solo in an enormous old house on Arlington Avenue.

Working alone on the kitchen cabinets he had only the Saints game on the radio to keep him company.

But for Fleming, that’s the preferred method.

“I’m normally by myself,” he said using a narrow roller on the cabinet’s framing. “It’s less stressful when you can work alone. You don’t have to worry about people not showing up to work, and you don’t have to worry about paying anyone, but yourself.”

For the past few years of Fleming’s career, jobs like Saturday’s have been the bulk of his work.

“I like working on these old houses,” he said. “But it takes a lot of patience, it’s a lot of hard work.”

Fleming said complex woodwork and layers of old paint make preparing old surfaces for new painting a time consuming process.

“That right there would take about three hours to get ready,” he said pointing to an intricately framed doorway. “That’s why you have to love this kind of work. It’s not for everyone.”