Simple But Striking DIY Painting

First, let me thank everyone who has voted for my blog in Apartment Therapy's "The Homies".  (Don't forget that you can vote for more than one blog, until Friday).  I really appreciate that my readers are so supportive - your comments and emails really keep me going.

To help convince you to vote Dans le Townhouse, I'm showing off my latest DIY project.  I am constantly ogling dramatic black and white paintings but a stark, graphic painting just didn't seem to fit anywhere in the townhouse . . . until we started working on the basement.  That's when I realized that I have the perfect spot: the stairwell!

I 100% copied a painting I spotted on Pinterest and re-pinned. I didn't achieve an exact replica (far from it) but it was kind of a neat challenge to try to imitate someone else.  It's actually an assignment I have had to do for art classes.

Harper's Bazaar

Here's the how-to. 

  
Ignore the bad lighting (I was painting in the evening, in our super dreary basement) and the mess (someone broke in and started painting random parts of the wall and made a mess; I blame teenagers).

I started with a blank canvas.  I had originally painted it a cream shade for another (abandoned) project, so I repainted over it with white.   Because paint is so expensive and I have some primer getting thicker with age, I cheated and used primer.  It actually worked super well.  You can use a plain, gessoed canvas, fresh from the store, and skip this step but I do like the look of brush strokes.

1. I flipped the canvas upside down (to encourage paint to flow) and, with a giant paintbrush quickly dipped in water and then black acrylic paint, I started making broad brush strokes.

2, 3 & 4. I flipped the canvas back around so I could shape the composition and I built up the paint in layers.  I let little pops of white peek through but made other sections very inky.

I flipped the canvas over again so I could paint the bottom.  I wrapped the painting around the sides, too, which creates a neat effect.  And it's a great way to avoid deciding on a frame (although I have some tips on that). 

And, voila!  I hung it in the dining room to show it off, but it's going in the stairwell soon enough.  I'm still working on some other basement-y stuff.  It fades in kind of a neat way against the white walls, but it will really pop against the greige walls in the stairwell.

Here's a close up view:

You should know I suffer for my art.  When I first picked up this canvas to get to work, I narrowly missed touching the giant centipede lurking inside.  I threw down the canvas, phoned and harassed Hubby at work (looking for centipede squashing tips, I guess? It is officially his job), then took a look and the centipede seemed to have vamoosed.  Not entirely convinced, I poked at the canvas with a roller extension rod (much the way in which toddlers whack at things in an uncoordinated fashion) and out he popped.  Why do they like to run toward me?  Shudder.    

If you're new to Dans le Townhouse, check out my DIY Projects page for other DIY art ideas.

I linked this project up to Amanda's Pinterest Party, Fridays on Remodelaholic, My Girlish Whims and also the Pinterest Challenge on Young House Love.