In Conversation With: Very Gay Paint

They paint, they perform, and they can rock a pair of overalls like no-one else – if there’s anything Very Gay Paint can’t do, we haven’t found it yet.

But while Nic Scheppard and Jenson Titus are undoubtedly men of many talents, we’re fans for one reason in particular. They’re the brains behind our California Collection mural, a mind-bending and thoroughly modern celebration of our eight new Kelly Wearstler-designed colours.

We caught up with the pair to get the story behind Very Gay Paint, pick up some professional painting tips, and find out why Faded Terracotta is the Laura Dern of the Farrow & Ball palette.

Can you tell our readers a little about who you are and what you do?

Our names are Nic Scheppard and Jenson Titus. We are comedians and boyfriends who accidentally started our business, Very Gay Paint, via Instagram in 2020 during our first COVID quarantine. We paint custom murals and pieces of art and, in an incredible feat of multitasking, also manage to be very gay.  

You recently made over our LA showroom using colours from our Kelly Wearstler-designed California Collection – what were your favourite colours from the palette?  

Sand is one of our all-time favorite colours and we’re huge fans of Faded Terracotta. Both manage to feel fairly neutral and chic while covertly having a ton of personality and impact. We call this the Laura Dern effect.  

How do your surroundings in LA influence your use of colour?

LA has so, so many colours at play together in its natural environment. There’s also a ton of bold, punchy public art. Seeing different colours come together in unexpected harmony pushes us to challenge our use of colour in new ways all the time. Also, everyone here has shiny white Hollywood teeth, but you’d never notice against plain, boring, equally white walls. That’s probably why we get so much business here.

If you were to sum each other up using just one Farrow & Ball colour, what would it be?

Nic: I think Jenson would be Charlotte’s Locks because of his affinity for bold, ridiculous wigs.

Jenson: Nic’s colour would definitely be Sulking Room Pink, for the room where he goes to sulk about how amazing all of my wigs are. 

What has been your most memorable project to date?

One of our favorite things about what we do is getting to travel and meet people we grow to love. A few months into starting Very Gay Paint, we had someone reach out to us from Palm Springs to come and paint a room in her house, and we immediately hit it off with her and her best friend, another incredible local artist. We quickly became great friends and we’ve been able to visit fairly regularly.

That job really became the gift that kept on giving. If you have a home in Palm Springs, we demand you hire us so that we (and you!) can hang out with our friends.

If you could create a mural for any building in the world, which one would you choose?

While not a building, we’d love to paint a huge Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote-style fake archway and road in the side of the Grand Canyon somewhere.  

Also, we are desperate to paint for Megan Thee Stallion in her home. We know that reaching out to her is a process, but we’d like that process to begin as soon as possible, so if any readers have a contact, please connect us with haste!

What’s one piece of painting advice that everybody should know, but doesn’t?

If you want to paint a clean, crisp, straight line, seal down the edge of your tape with the base colour and let it dry before painting your new colour so that it seals any little holes and your new colour doesn’t leak through.

Do you have any tips for our readers who’d like to create murals at home?

Be deliberate but don’t be too precious about it. If you have your base wall colour you can fix or paint over any mistake you make. It’s just paint. Also, please consider being gay. It is a huge help.