‘A Piece of My Heart’ Easy Abstract Painting

Need a little art for your walls? Tips and Video to make this Easy Abstract Painting.

Remember how I was just chatting about my favorite things to do when it is cold and wet outside? Well…add painting to that list.

Kate needed a painting for her room.  I’m sure you don’t want to hear all the details, well…OK…I’ll tell you…it has something to do with weevils infesting the fantastic paper mache Ram’s Head I made for her 2 years ago… Lessons learned…only use glue and not flour for paper mache.

But I digress…without the Ram Head, Kate’s wall had a big empty spot. So…I did what I do…I painted a new picture for the blank space on her wall…and I called it “A Piece of My Heart” because aren’t all our kiddos a piece of our hearts? 

When I need want something quickly, I find that an easy abstract painting is the way to go.

For this project, I was excited to use DecoArt’s new line of Americana Premium Acrylic Paints.

DecoArt kindly sent these paints to me to use in this project, but all opinions are my own.

Some of these are affiliate links and I will earn a small commission off of the sale of these products, but the price you are charged is not affected. You can see my full disclosure policy here.

I used their Titanium White, Quinacridone Red, Vermillion Hue, Cadmium Red Hue and Primary Magenta in their new Americana Premium Acrylic Line.  I also use a little of their Whispering Turquoise Americana Acrylic Paint that I already had in my inventory.

And while we’re talking supplies, I use Mona Lisa Metal Leaf Adhesive and Gold Leaf.

I also found a wax brush to be the best for applying the paint so that I didn’t get brush strokes.

If you can’t find what you need,  Michaels will have supplies for most every crafting need under the sun. You can order online here and have it shipped or you can pick it up at your convenience. 

I have painted a similar ‘abstract’ painting several years ago and have had several requests for how I did it. I wasn’t blogging back then, so I didn’t document the process. But I did document this easy abstract painting…so you can see the crazy, messy, ‘fly by the seat of her paints pants’ me at work.

Now let me back up and say…I am not a professionally trained ‘artist’…I was a finance major for heaven’s sake. But I am a firm believer in just jumping in and learning through trial and error. The wonderful thing about paint is that it can be painted over.

Which I did several times in this process.

And I also know that abstract is not everyone’s cup of tea…that’s cool…that’s what makes the world go ’round (as my Grandma used to say…well, maybe not the ‘that’s cool’ part…she wasn’t quite that hip)

But, I think we can all agree that Gold Leaf makes everything better. Am I right?

In my experimentation of painting, I have found that there are a couple of guidelines I use that may help you with your EasyAbstract Painting:

• I like to determine a general and loose ‘design’…in this case, it’s a diagonal through the center.  But it could be a loose cross, or a Z shape, or an S shape, or an irregular triangle, etc…
• I do keep in mind colors that play well together.  In this case, my pinks, oranges, and blues are ‘triadic’ colors…equally spaced around the color wheel.  My pink is my dominant color and the orange and blue are highlights.  For more information on color harmony, check out this site.
• I try really hard not to muddy my colors by moving them around too much when they are wet, this is especially true with oils.
• I like to layer colors…with something ‘peeking’ out from underneath.
• Once I think I’m done, I put the painting somewhere where I will see it often.  If something isn’t quite right your eye will tell you.
• And with something like this, that won’t have a piece of glass over it…there is no rule that says that one year later after it has been hanging on your wall, you still can’t go back and add a dab or two in an area that still needs something.
• Unless you are wanting fine detail, keep your wrist loose and hold your brush by the very end of the handle.  This will keep your strokes loose.
• I ALWAYS paint an undercoat on my canvas.  Sometimes it blends well, like this pink. Other times it doesn’t necessarily, but just having a peek of something in some places provides interest.

Now, let’s talk about the frame.  More to the point, let’s talk about how expensive it is to get something professionally framed! Because I like to dabble in paint, we’d be living on the streets if I professionally framed everything I painted. So, there are a couple of alternatives:

• You could make your own.  I have done this and you do need a good miter saw.  Here’s a great video if you want to go that route.
• Especially if you have a thick canvas..like this one…wrap the paint around the side, like this. This one is 3″ thick…

  

Truth time…I started this painting probably 17 years ago and have never finished it…and it’s been hanging up in my den for 16.5 years.  Who knows, I may get to it someday. But then again, I may not.

But in the case of an abstract, just extend the painting around the side in the same way, even the gold leaf if you are using it.

• Using already put together canvas frames (as opposed to photo frames) from Michaels or another frame store.  In this case, my canvas was a wonky size (note…if you are going to go the premade route…check to see what frame sizes the carry and then chose your canvas accordingly) so there weren’t any premade canvas frames.

So, I took the one black photo frame that they had in my size, grabbed some Ook Offset Clips (they come in a variety of sizes, the size you need depends on the difference between the canvas edge and the frame edge) and went home to hack my frame. I removed the glass and everything else, spray painted it gold and then attached my canvas to the frame with the offset clips.

And TADA!

Now, I promised the ‘how to’ for this Easy Abstract Painting…but can we all agree that taking photos for every stroke of paint could be…well…difficult. So, instead, I recorded the process for you.  I did speed it up to 6 times but think you can easily get a sense of what I did. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. Once again, I am not an authority, but I know what works for me.

So, if you think you’d like to dive in and give an easy abstract painting a whirl someday down the road, make sure you bookmark this page or pin the following image.

If you like the way that this painting looks, I have another one that is similar, my DIY Watercolor Painting with Gold Leaf.

Thanks for spending a few minutes of your precious time with me today.

Thanks for making my day by SHARING!!