Eric’s love for flying took a nose dive when he dropped out of high school. Little did he know then he’d be landing on his feet and loving life as a painter.
A 47-year career in painting wasn’t on Eric Gordon’s bingo card when he first dropped out of high school.
“To be perfectly honest, I wanted to be a pilot but I dropped out of school too early,” he joked.
“So, I ended just taking the first job that came along. I went for several jobs and the first one I got was as a painter.”
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Eric has worked across a number of companies and sites. He’s been his own boss since 2002, and started his own outfit officially in 2016.
Prime Painting Group has existed ever since, working on painting gigs across all manner of projects and locations across Victoria.
Overboard
Industrial, commercial, heritage, residential – Eric’s done it and will continue to do it all at Prime Painting Group.
“I’m basically one of those people who doesn’t say no to any job,” he said.
“We did a job last year in Geelong where we had to paint a new sign on a ship. We had to abseil down the side of it and put a new name on it.
“That job came out of the blue and we had a crack at it.
“Why not? It’s just abseiling down the side of a ship … we had painters who could do that.”
While not all jobs involved abseiling on the seven seas, Eric was proud of the work his company had done all around Victoria.
This includes a number of contracts with councils including Mitchell Shire, Ararat Rural City and Mt Alexander Shire. Prime Painting Group was also contracted to work on 19 Westpac branches across the state.
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Abseiling and big-time contracts are one thing, but one of Eric’s fondest memories came early in his painting career.
“We worked on the gold leafing at the Melbourne Concert Hall, I was working on that for six months,” he said.
“I’m one of the few painters in Melbourne who can do gold leafing.
“To be able to look up at that ceiling all these years later and see it still there – I helped do that.”
There’s a lot Eric loves about painting these days, but admitted he missed a few of the of the little things.
“Nowadays, you can buy everything in a can – whereas back in the day, you had to mix a lot yourself,” he said.
“We used to do things like a crocodile finish to make something look like reptile skin.
“I’m pretty sure you can buy that in a can now, anyone can do it these days. But back in the day, you had to know the right formulas and tricks.”
You can find out more about Prime Painting Group online at primepaintinggroup.com.au