This really speaks out to different goals and desires in a relationship.
The primary speaker has a lover who leaves them behind while swearing up and down that they love her. They have these pursuits and claim it's for noble reasons - beauty, freedom, the light - but she suspects it's both a pretty lie ("Go paint the ladies on the beach, With crinolines and parasols, To shade their beautiful faces,
From the sunlight that you love so well") and that it doesn't matter, because even if it for these ideals, the singer feels neglected, so is releasing the painter to chase the light - or whatever - as long as it's away from her.
This really speaks out to different goals and desires in a relationship. The primary speaker has a lover who leaves them behind while swearing up and down that they love her. They have these pursuits and claim it's for noble reasons - beauty, freedom, the light - but she suspects it's both a pretty lie ("Go paint the ladies on the beach, With crinolines and parasols, To shade their beautiful faces, From the sunlight that you love so well") and that it doesn't matter, because even if it for these ideals, the singer feels neglected, so is releasing the painter to chase the light - or whatever - as long as it's away from her.