Monday, October 3, 2011

Playing with Paint

I love to paint, but it's usually only on furniture or sometimes a wall or two.  I've never tried painting a canvas before.  This is all about to change, my friends.

Sadie+Stella's e-design of my living room recommended that I try painting a large canvas to go in the niche above my TV.
Before starting all of this redecorating, I had a long Tuscan countryside painting up there - lots of yellows, red, and green.   I definitely need something to replace it, but haven't found the perfect piece.

So, it looks like I'm going to attempt a canvas.  Sadie+Stella recommended stenciling an ikat or geometric pattern or doing an abstract with the colors in my living room.   I've been searching around the Internet and Pinterest to find images that I like and it looks like I'm going the abstract route.

I wanted to share a couple of images and tutorials that I found.  I don't advocate copying an original artwork and passing it off as your own creation, but I think it's OK to use someone else's art as inspiration to create your very own unique piece.

These two are by Jen Ramos, the blogger behind Made by Girl and the artist known as Cocoa and Hearts.  I'm drawn to the colors in these pieces.





The next two are from an artist named Georgia Gray.  I think I might have a thing for stripes?




Lisa, at Trapped in North Jersey, did something similar for her daughter's bedroom:


Blogger Elise Blaha Cripe was inspired by these pieces:



She used them to create her own piece:



The blog Oh Happy Day gives a tutorial on how she made these pieces:



Do you read Oh Happy Day?  You should, but it might make you green with envy.  It follows the life of Jordan, her husband, and 2 children as they spend a year living abroad in Paris.

Here's another fun canvas that I might try with the kiddos.  All you do is paint on bubble wrap and press it on the canvas:



Here's another one to try with the kids.  Grab your crayons and hair dryer and voila!



I'm thinking I'm going to be doing a combo of the lines and fingerprint paintings.  I want to put some sparkly gold accents in there as well.  I have NO idea what I'm doing, but that hasn't stopped me before.  I'm going to give it a shot and will share the results with you soon.

4 comments:

Sadie + Stella said...

Get it girl. We have faith in you. Love where you are going with this and we cannot wait to see the final result. The layers will look phenomenal in the niche!

www.sadieandstella.blogspot.com

Carol-Anne said...

What a great idea! Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Holly Gruszka said...

I don't know how I missed this one but curious to see what you end up doing. Color is so fun - anything will look great - plus it will be handmade with love and who knows one of your girls might want it someday for their apartment or something - how cool would that be?!

A room with a view said...

You are sure to come up with something fabulous and you have a lot of inspired ideas here. It is sure to be a fun creative process. Enjoy! The cocoa and hearts pics have been on my list of inspirational artwork - so pretty.