LHB Art

 Modern Art is super easy to replicate.  Honest!  I saw the painting below for $350 it is called Circles.  (duh)  I snapped this shot with my cell phone.

Again, sorry this was pre"blog" days.  So no instruction photos. Below is the "Mance" girls version.  My twenty year old daughter helped me with this.  I hit JoAnn's Fabric, the canvas is duck cloth stretched over 1x2's. (actual canvas fabric is pricey 18-20 a yard) I am getting ready to make another frame for more art (I'll blog that) they are easy to do as well.  The hardest part is finding straight lumber.

I used standard house paint to do the background.(stuff I already had)  First I primed the canvas.

Below is primed cloth -not the above painting but I prime all the canvases first.  Or they will drink the paint like no body's business.  The cloth (canvas) on the right is duck cloth (exterior furniture fabric)  It was on sale 30% off and I used an additional coupon of 40% off.  (Remember I am cheap)  The fabric on the right is a heavy plastic blend that I didn't know at the time.  I wanted to do a really LARGE beach painting and needed a sturdier canvas. (I couldn't iron the canvas on the right, I'll show you the issues in the beach blog)

After the primer had dried we dumped paint directly on the canvas. Pouring it in thin lines, in a random twirl type thing. The background has about 15 different shades of paint. (just left over house paint)  As you can see I lean towards tans and grays on my walls.  As we rolled the paint on the canvas we tried not to back roll anymore than we need to.  We didn't want to blend the paint just smooth it out and cover the entire canvas. FYI you can't use too much paint.  Less it not more in this case, you want the canvas to be covered completely.  Again you want to make sure the entire canvas is covered, no primer is peaking through, and that it is smooth while the paint is wet.  This is your base.  Allow to dry.  Ours took two days.  I paint then stretch the canvas.  Easier to transport.  That and the saw is at the lake house.

The purple paint is the Valspar I have been complaining about.  My DIL wanted a dresser painted a purple color. (for my first grandchild) I could not get it color matched in a enamel from Sherwin Williams so I first got the Valspar.  (BAD move) I was able to get the paint color matched in Behr.  (dresser will be another post.)  This is the quart of Valspar we had left over. 

Circles-  we took various size lids and dipped them in the purple paint then pressed them on the canvas.  We did this until we were happy.  We made sure to set the paint loaded circle down firmly, do not twist or slide.  Then lift straight up.  If you get any smudges you can take an artist brush and clean them up with a line of paint.  Both of us agreed that the entire canvas could not be covered in circles.  Artist preference.  If you do circles, you decided what you like.  Allow that to dry.  Then Kelsey (the patience one) took an artist brush and outlined all the circles with the cream (trim enamel from Houston home).  Again we decided to "flip" the color shadow effect.  We are very happy with ours.  Hope you try this.  The canvas cost me $6 and the paint was free.  I use $.98 1x2's for the frame, three of them lets call it $3.  So for $9 I have 49 x 29 inch piece of custom art.

Again we (Kelsey& I) used duck cloth but this piece was even cheaper  I got the entire piece for $5 it is two yards. It was a bright pink and green chevron fabric.  (Who cares the primer will cover any pattern, so don't be afraid of cheap pattern fabric.  You are just looking for a stiff heavy piece of material to make into a canvas.)    Making the finished painting 62x39 (HUGE).  It took four 1x2's to do the frame for another $4.  The paint was free leftover house paint.  So again I have $9 in custom art.  We primed the canvas allowed it to dry then dipped paint brushes into different colors.  We then used a roller to roll the wet paint a couple of times for even out the coverage.  Only rolling with the stripes, picking up the roller and moving it to the next section, which gave us a slightly blended effect.  Then we took the brushes and "tweaked" the lines.  We took a loaded single color paint brush and drug it top to bottom.  We both agreed that we didn't want the stripes too straight.  We like how this one turned out too.  We painted both of these pieces at the same time, with the same colors, as you can see they look entirely different.  Blending and paint application & techniques matter.  Good luck and hope you try painting some art.

Happy Art Making