DIY Black And White Abstract Art

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

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.

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.

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!

 

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. 

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.

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

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.