Friday, February 21, 2014

DIY Black And White Abstract Art

Howdy!  It’s been awhile since I’ve last written!

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My oldest child recently turned 12!  It’s impossible to think that 12 years have gone by so quickly.  It seems like only a few short years ago she was a baby and I rocked her to sleep.  I can remember the snow storm we had a few day prior to her birth…and the waiter telling me that my spicy dish would sure send me into labor the day before…and my blood pressure sky-rocketing when I was admitted into the hospital.  Now my little baby has become a honest, truthful and caring young person.  She wears her emotions on her sleeve.   When something’s not right or if she has a QUESTION she is not embarrassed or afraid to ask or tell me what’s on her mind.  I’m pretty sure I don’t want to discourage that! 

Happy Birthday to my sweet beautiful baby young person!  She secretly will always be my baby and I think in her heart she feels the same way!

With all the birthday preparations and celebrations over with, I thought I would share my latest DIY project. 

black & white abstract art

After browsing Pinterest, design magazines and blogs, I have noticed a lot of black and white abstract art out there.  It was art that I shied away from in the past just because I didn’t like it.  The more I saw it the more it started to grow on me.

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I thought I would try my hand at it.  I knew I didn’t want anything too big, like pictured above.  Mainly because I still wasn’t completely on board with this type of art yet. 

I was on a hunt to find a small canvas.  Then I remembered I had these.

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In my community on Facebook, I am part of a group that you can buy and sell gently used items.  I had planned on selling these….but “Wait a minute” these would do.  These could be my small canvases.  I knew my kiddos didn’t want these hanging in their rooms anymore, so I decided to give these a whirl.

I painted them an off-white instead of a pure white.  I don’t know if I necessarily like the sharp contrast of black and white.  So maybe my post should be titled “black and off-white abstract art” instead. Ha-ha!

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I didn’t take any during progress pictures…because let’s face it…I redid one the canvas probably 4 times!  No one really needs to see all that mess and my frustrations!  Luckily the first one I was happy with right from the start.  Don’t give up!  Paint over it if you’re not totally happy with it.

And if we’re being totally honest I painted these several months before Christmas.  I didn’t like them!  So I put them away.  I even considered throwing them away!  I know it’s weird…I just have this thing if I’m not liking it I just want it gone.  BUT…..I stuck with it and just recently pulled them back out.

Enough with all of my needs on it being perfect!  Here’s my process I went through.

I took the above “West Elm” picture and focused on smaller aspects of it.  Since these canvases measure 10” square I knew I could only fit a small portion of it.  I even did some quick sketches on paper on how I wanted them to look before I started painting. 

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I blended the two areas together around the edges and it created shades of grey.  I rather like the grey.  It lessens the blow of how sharp the contrast is between the black and white for me.  Plus is seems more “artsy” and more like a “real” piece of art.

I wanted to frame it, but the pieces of wood I had did not lay flat against the side and it looked funny.  I didn’t want the edges to stand out in this particular situation so I just painted them black.

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Then for my second canvas (the one I just couldn’t get right), I have sitting on one of my book shelves.

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This project costs me nothing.  I reused canvases that I already had along with black and off-white paint. 

This project could have easily been done on a piece of heavier paper and then framed.  Or if you or someone you know are handy with power tools you could even cut a 10” square from a 10” board.  And for that matter you could cut any size square or rectangle from what you have available.  The possibilities are endless!

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now.

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