DIY Canvas Art

I've seen similar projects on several blogs and decided to give it a try so I'd have something to put on the wall in our bedroom between the bathroom and the window.

I found a 2-pack of 24"x30" stretched canvases at wallyworld for $15. I was going to look for an old painting to paint over at Goodwill, but I haven't had good luck finding useable pictures or frames there, so I jumped on the 2-pack.

I started by painting a coat of gesso to prime the canvas.

Then I dripped, well glopped, paint leftover from various projects on the canvas. If I do this again, I would definitely use less paint. Once the paint was on the canvas, I brushed back and forth until I was happy with how it looked.

I think that brushing on one color at a time would probably work the best. I glopped all my colors on at once, then started brushing back and forth. Because of the delay in getting to some of the paint, I have dried drops and splotches that show under the paint. It's just the texture showing through, but they're there. I haven't decided yet if that adds character, or just shows how clueless I am when it comes to painting. Probably the latter. Good thing I'm not doing this for money :)

It's rather abstract, but I like the colors, and it will bring some color to our bedroom wall. The more I look at it, the more I think it looks like a stormy sky above the ocean.

While the painting dried, I cut a 1x2, then stained it and nailed it to make a frame for the painting. I also screwed two screws into the back of the canvas frame and ran wire between the screws. The last step was to hang my masterpiece on the wall.

Like a lot of my projects, it's not perfect, but I do think it turned out well. Though as I'm looking at these pictures, I think it may be a bit too large for that particular space, so I may move it to another wall in our room. Decisions, decisions.