I am constantly ogling dramatic black and white art 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! So I hauled out my art supplies and decided to make my own black and white art.
I spotted a great black and white painting on Pinterest and that was definitely my inspiration. I didn't achieve an exact replica (far from it), but it was a fun challenge to try to imitate someone else. It's actually an assignment I have had to do for art classes.
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| Harper's Bazaar |
Ignore the bad lighting - I was painting in the evening, in our super dreary basement. Please also ignore the mess (someone clearly broke in and started painting random parts of the wall and made a mess; I blame teenagers).
Supplies:
I started with a blank white canvas. I had originally painted it a shade of cream for another (abandoned) project, so I painted over it with white. Because paint is so expensive I cheated and used primer. It actually worked really 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.
How to make your own abstract art:
Step 1: I flipped the canvas upside down (to encourage paint to flow) and, with a giant paintbrush quickly dipped in water and some black acrylic paint, starting making broad brush strokes.
Steps: 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.
You could easily create this DIY art in other colours or by using gold leaf instead of paint.
Step 5: 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! My simple but striking, DIY art!
I hung it in the dining room to show it off, but it's going in the stairwell soon enough. It fades in kind of a neat way against the white walls, but it will really pop against the greige walls.
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 anther 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 Lakehouse, check out my DIY Projects Gallery for other DIY art ideas.
