Art ideas.... DIY abstract canvases etc

JennyP

Holed up in cold on our boat! We're in the process of moving onto dry land which means I have a whole house to decorate. And since today, warmest place on boat is under duvet, I have time to get ideas together!!!
Been browsing Pinterest for abstract art / simple art ideas that I could make. I have a load of canvases already. Previous attempts have looked naff if I'm honest!!!
Any genius suggestions? Examples?

Artytarty

Using paint on canvas?
You could try masking tape , do straight lines on a background, Mondrian style.
Or slightly more imaginative, very basic landscapes with huge wide brush strokes,just a few to denote sky, yellow swipe for a corn field etc...oh I wish I was doing this!

JennyP

Yes, I have paints.
I love some of the abstract canvases with gold leaf on. Wondered if I could try that.

wort

As the previous poster, using tape to get straight lines, doing a bar code effect different widths , I once did this direct onto the walls ,.. I've also done a canvas with three shades of blue using match pots. Starting with white , then graduating the light blue to dark,overlapping the colours slightly and using light strokes to blend together.

Otherwise buy cheap frames from cs and paint all same colour to match ,or the frame less frames.and frame pieces of wallpaper or posters.

wort

How about marbled wrapping paper, and adding gold leaf to that??? . No painting required.!

JennyP

wort wrote: »

How about marbled wrapping paper, and adding gold leaf to that??? . No painting required.!

Genius idea even I can manage that!

Going to try the masking tape idea too!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Paint the entire canvas in a shade that contrasts or is a couple of shades darker than your main wall colour.

Use the paints that you have used throughout the house (I'm assuming they 'flow' into one another, rather than look like completely separate units) and get a couple of little tester pots of a dark shade of the main room colour and one of a completely contrasting colour - for example, my hall is a mid chalky, mossy green, the woodwork is white and the living room is a pale chalky grey-green-blue with one wall a darker shade. The canvas is the darker shade, but there is also some of the green, some white and some red. I tend to go for splashes and blobs, more like a Pollock than a Rothko, but each colour picks up on those used in the room and from the place you can see into (the hall), It's hung on the main, lighter shade of blue.

And then you could follow the line of some of the splashes with glue/size to add gold leaf (or bronze/silver/copper, whichever you prefer).


I'd be wary of using a brush to make wavy lines and shapes or leaves, as, going by the 'Art' on sale in various posh coffee shops whilst on holiday, the chances are that you'll end up with a picture called 'leaves' or 'Autumn', but the image forms, with other paintings, a series of Vagina Variations.

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An alternative would be to opt for a very pale base colour and use leaves, etc, to make prints with the other paint colours. I'd suggest making them widely spaced out on the canvas, say 3 x 3 if it's a square one.

Don't bother with inspirational phrases or words. It'll just look like bad graffiti.





Another suggestion is to cover a board with pages from a book that is already in pieces and missing pages or ruined music scores, use watered down PVA to fix them, and then draw or paste a cutout of something in the middle, making sure it's large enough to fill a large part of the picture. For example, if you found an old copy of Watership Down that was already missing pages and falling apart, you could use those and then have a large image of a rabbit in the middle. If you preferred, you could paint over it so make it look more 'art' than 'cutting and sticking'.


And there is nothing wrong with a carefully carved potato print. Use a baker rather than a weedy Jersey Royal and make it as graphic (ie, clean lines, clear colours) as possible.

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The most important thing is to cover the entire canvas before you start. It provides a perfect surface for the rest of the paint and looks far more finished. You could also use boards rather than canvas (off cuts of MDF, for example).

JennyP

Jojo, I love those ideas. I used to be a music teacher and am a published author (not famous!!!) so those two particularly seem appropriate for me!

MMF007

Oh, great thread, thanks!

I had some art classes last year, having not painted since 3rd year at school, about 40 years ago.
I have [STRIKE]very little[/STRIKE] no natural talent but have managed to produce 3 or 4 decent pieces so far. I have a book of fake gold leaf that I'd love to incorporate into an abstract.

I did buy a really naff picture from a secondhand shop just because it had a largish and rather good frame. It cost £12 (I dithered about paying that much but, of course, framjng anythjng would cost far more). I shall use this bad weather to sketch some ideas for the masterpiece I want to put in the frame :rotfl:

I so hope we get more great suggestions :j

JennyP

There's loads of art classes in the town nearest our house. I might give it a whirl!

midnightraven3

I saved this the other day
I am going to try this soon
https://www.lilyardor.com/diy-abstract-art-fluid-painting/