Tuesday Tutorial

I love how this art piece turned out!  I had painted the Memphis painting a couple of years ago from a photograph that I had taken.  I've never really painted something like that before so it was a challenge but I'm pretty proud of myself.  However, I painted it on a flat canvas panel so it's been sitting in a crate of paintings ever since I completed it.

This past weekend, I was working on some other crafts and trying to use up things I have lying around (after deciding I do not want to be on Hoarders).  That's when I got this neat idea.

I had a big 16 X 20 canvas that I painted a gloss black.  Actually, the canvas had been painted by my daughter years ago and was less than artistic so I painted over it.  I have to do that every once in a while to my art and hers or we would be up to our ears in paintings (then you would see us on Hoarders).  This gave the big canvas some texture because there were some thick globs of paint that had to be covered with the black.  Then, I centered the Memphis painting on the canvas and glued it in place.  But I didn't stop there!  I had an entire container of gold thumbtacks so I stuck them in the canvas around the original painting, almost like the flashing lights of the Blues Club!  I know my thumbtacks aren't perfectly straight but, hey, it's art!  I love the dimension and layers.  The reason I had not done anything with the canvas before is because I didn't want it in a boring frame.  This is much better.

I think this is now one of my favorite pieces that I have in my house!  And I love the fact that it is a constant reminder of that trip a few years ago with the hubby and kids.  It was their first time in Memphis and it was right after Christmas.  Great memories.  I think I'll start doing more paintings from my travel photos and finding unique ways to display it instead of just painting on a canvas.  Now I just need to recover the chair and repaint the side table that sits near the door where I hung the painting.  Another project for another day.  An artist's work is never done!

Be blessed and go create something!