The “Anyone Can Paint” Art Project

This is my latest project, for my friend Elizabeth, of Elizabeth’s Wildlife Center.

I always drew and painted as a child, but it wasn’t until after my own daughters had been taking art classes for years, that it occurred to me that I might enjoy taking it up again, myself.

So, a few years ago, I started taking a water-colour class with local artist Donna Senft. And what do you know, I love it!

Recently, I got adventurous with some enormous mixed-media projects. Well, the real reason is the two enormous blank walls in my husband’s new animal hospital, just crying out for some colour. I figured, I might as well take a stab at some BIG decorative canvases. My idea was a little vague, but I thought it could come together into something amazing. Donna always says the great thing about me is that I’m not afraid of the paint. I’ll slap it on any which way, figuring I can always change it later if I don’t like it.

A good thing, as it turned out.

Curious about my process? Here’s a step-by-step, following the progress of three new pictures I did over about a weekend, last month.

I bought three big canvases from Michael’s store, two 24×48, one 24×36.

Before anything else, attach your hangers. You don’t want to do this once the picture’s finished – you might ruin the surface. Tip: unless you have a very brave and trusting toddler, hold those teeny-tiny nails with needle-nosed pliers.

 

Next, I roughed out the stencil placement.

Then, I prepped each canvas with texture. On a smaller picture I’d use proper artist’s gesso, but at about 10 times the cost, for these big surfaces? Home Depot Polystipple. This is fun. You slop it on any old way, so it creates interesting cracks and crevices for the paint to collect. (Hm. That reminds me, I’m out of lipstick.) But make sure to leave a fairly flat space for the stencil.

Once the texture is dry, cover the surface with a base coat of colour. I used the same paint we used for the walls as my base. I mean the same paint, as in the half-empty cans of latex the painters left for touch-ups. Really, this isn’t fancy.

Then I started adding colour. I’ve got a checker-board theme going, so I continued it here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I liked how these were coming together. So naturally, I went the next step.

Q: Why wouldn’t you add a crooked swath of blood?

A: Because that’s not the desired ambiance for a veterinary hospital. Duh.

 

 

 

 

Fortunately, latex is pretty forgiving while it’s wet. I just washed it off, then painted over it.

Once I got the base more or less how I wanted it, I added some droplets, drips and splotches. Acrylic latex is wonderful for this kind of treatment.

 

 

 

 

Then I got going on the stencils. These are custom designed by The Mad Stencilist, ordered online, shipped to my door. Super convenient.

 

 

 

 

 

I had to do a few touch ups around the edges of the letters on this one, but that’s basically it. Voila!