Making Acrylic Art: a house log

It is Tuesday the 10th… so it is time to share this season’s (fully unofficial) Pinterest Challenge (not sponsored by Pinterest or anyone else, simply dreamed up by Katie to make us stop pinning and start doing). Cue the choir of glue-gun-wielding angels!

I in fact tried my hand at painting, simply because I thought it would be lively to get back into. Other than this painting that I did a while back, I have not painted much beyond walls, accessories, and furniture for the last decade or so. Are my Pinterest challenge paintings going to land me an art opening anytime soon? Not on your life. Haha. But it was so much lively and I found spots for them all over the house – and I truly do smile when I see them. The best part is that I got to spend two strong evenings messing around with Christmas art supplies from John that sat unused in my closet for over six months. I truly hope I stick with it, because painting is totally my idea of a good time.

As per the rules, I took inspiration (or Pintspiration, har-har) from the projects that I linked up with in last Tuesday’s post and did my own spin. Here is a recap of them for ya:

1. Fabric by John Robshaw reminded me of the geometric doodles that my dad used to make.
2. Clara painted this with reckless abandon (more on that here) and I have consistently enjoyed it.
3. This is a cool Hands-on art project that I saw on Pinterest (she in fact used a toothpaste lid). You can read all about it here.
4. I asked Kristen at KFD Designs to make sure she was ok with me pinning her art. Thankfully she did not mind at all (she does commissioned art for anyone who wants to get this look – and as for me, I enjoyed using her as my muse, haha).
5. This was a Hands-on art project that was in fact done for a Pinterest Challenge with us. So I thought that was excellent that our little challenge inspired her to make something, and in turn her result inspired me.
6. This is a watercolor card project, but the glad colors and rough imperfect strokes are so charming.

*As for other places that I have found art inspiration – Michelle Armas is unparalleled (seriously, total girl crush) and this post about making abstract art over on Oh Glad Day had me pumped to paint. But sufficient jibber jabber – here is the painting play-by-play:

My first painting adventure began after Clara went to bed for the night around 8pm. I got out my little set of acrylics (by Reeves) and my small canvases (which I got for a dollar each) with my Christmas gift card to Main Art Supply here in Richmond.

About twenty minutes later I had this:

I thought fairly hard about the colors I included (I enjoy the red & coral with the green, yellow, and blue) but I tried not to think too much about the way I applied them. I literally simply dabbed things on in a few spots, moved to another color and applied that, repeat, repeat, repeat. Sometimes I dragged the brush to make things look smoother and more blended while other times I did more of a dab-dab-dab application.

I in fact truly liked how this came out and immediately wished it was about ten times the size. Oh well, starting small was less intimidating, so I guess it worked out for me (and I can consistently have this blown up 300% at Kinkos on pleasant paper and then simply frame it with a thick mat in a giant frame).

The next painting was not one I enjoyed as much as my first (perhaps that was beginner’s luck?) but I did not hate it. I think I simply connected with the colors in the first painting more, so it was a good lesson in taking my time with the colors I used instead of rushing to fill up the canvas. Painting is apparently a marathon, not a sprint.

In the end it was sweet in its own way. And at only 4 x 6″ it is hardly a giant commitment.

Then I moved on from my canvas-wrapped boards to an actual 5 x 5″ canvas (it is much chunkier and more substantial) and this time I went loosey goosey with it.

My whole technique was dab-dab-dab for this guy. It is kinda water-lillies-esque to me, which I do not think is a bad thing (enjoy me some Monet) and the small streaks of coral and bright pops of turquoise make me glad. Once again I am learning the color choice totally makes or breaks things in my mind.

After they all dried overnight, I studied the hallway frame wall for a spot to add them. We enjoy switching things up on that wall, so the two thin canvas-wrapped-boards simply got popped into existing frames (in place of an Ikea print and a postcard I had previously framed). See them up in the top left corner?

Still like this guy the best. Totally beginners luck. I took the glass out of this frame (it was too thick for it to fit) but the green one fit behind the glass, so I left it in for that one.

The thicker 5 x 5″ canvas found a spot on the other frame wall (top right).

Would you like fries turquoise smears with that?

Now I am about to scare you. I laid out two larger canvas boards (8 x 11) that were $2 each and chose to photograph all the “phases” they went through. Things consistently start out realllllly ugly. Exhibit A:

I tend to simply build and build until I get somewhere totally distinct. Looking back at these pictures I wonder if I should have stopped here. At the time it felt truly unfinished, but I like them now. Haha.

Then I ended up here by adding a lot of white and dabbing and streaking things around. I totally should have stopped here. I enjoy that little bright red heart hiding in the canvas on the right (the one peeking through from behind the white in the bottom left corner).

These paintings (and photographing the stages) taught me a pleasant lesson. Know when to stop! Haha. I kept noodling and they ended up here. I have a fairly strong preference for the paintings above these to the paintings below, but now I know. Take a breath every now and then and see if you are simply painting because it is lively or in fact making a positive improvement. Lesson learned.

Thankfully I do not totally hate where I ended up. In person they have a truly lively neon greeny-yellow color in them that makes them feel modern & glad. And it is pleasant to know that I can consistently paint over them (that is the beauty of paint and $2 canvas boards – zero commitment).

I also knew they’d look more wrapped up when I framed them, so John and I in fact DIYed two chunky wood frames (John will be back this afternoon with all those details – and you can do it without a Kreg Jig or any major tools for that matter – yay!). I originally planned to hang them in the office, but the stenciled walls competed, so we ended up liking them most in the kitchen. Best of all – no holes in the wall (simply 3M picture hanging velcro strips for the one over the stove). Straightforward to do, and undo!

Speaking of the one above the stove, do not worry about that getting splattered. I went to Lowe’s and got a $3 piece of acrylic that I slipped in front of the painting to keep it wipeable (so it is protected from rogue spaghetti sauce splatters).

It is funny how many things I have held over the stove only to decide they did not truly work, yet this homemade painting with a homemade frame seems to slip right in. Dare I say it was meant to be? At least for now until I get a wild hair and decide to paint over them again- haha. I will keep you posted for sure!

So that is how it all went down. As for the money stuff, here is a little budget breakdown:

• $11 – for the five canvases and the paint brush that I used (purchased at a local art shop called Main Street Art Supply)
• $16 – for the set of 24-pack of acrylic paints by Reeves (also from Main Street Art Supply)
• $0 – two homemade frames <–made from scrap wood and supplies we had on hand – more on that process this afternoon!
• $0 – two more already owned frames for the smaller flat canvases in the hallway
• $3 – piece of acrylic from Lowe’s to protect the canvas over the stove from splatters
• Total: $30 (for five painted canvases – four of which are framed – which averages to $6 per piece)
  

Oh and if you call the art supplies a holiday present (since they were purchased six months ago with a Christmas gift card), I in fact did not spend any money on this Pinterest challenge – simply used things that we had like scrap wood, and inexpensive canvases and paint (other than the $3 piece of acrylic). Low-cost people like me like looking at things this way. Haha.

Do not forget to check in on Katie, Kate, and Michelle to see what amaaaaazing projects they whipped up (they’ll be sharing theirs sometime today as well)!

And now here is the part where we invite you to share all of the lively Pinterest Challenge projects that you folks have tackled in the last week (right along with us, well at least virtually with us). If you’ve already blogged about it, simply:

1. click on the blue “Add Your Link” button with the odd cartoon head at the bottom of this post (you might have to do some scrolling, depending how many projects are brought in)
2. add a link to your specific journal post about your project in the url field (not your home page)
3. where it says “name” write a descriptive name for your project (ex: “Painted Canvases”) as opposed to your actual name
4. we’d also enjoy if you could swiftly link back over to our project posts within your own (here is Katie’s, Kate’s, Michelle’s, and ours) – it is also pleasant to link to your inspiration project on Pinterest as well as to directly link to the original project/site, simply so they get some enjoy too.

And if you’d rather simply link over to your project in the comment section, feel free to do that – or even add a link to a free photo sharing site like Flickr with your pics if you do not have a journal (remember to set the gallery to public so we can all see it). We cannot wait to see what you’ve been up to!