Paint-Your-Own Artwork

You might remember last week I wrote about a hotel in Maui with this artwork:

It's big and grand and eye-catching.

It's also totally easy to replicate. Grab a bunch of square canvases, paint each one--including the side edges  as well as the tops--and hang next to each other:

Or you can just paint one big ol' canvas. Which is what I did a number of years ago for the area over our fireplace:

It was so easy, and so much fun! First, I bought a big, prestretched canvas for less than $10 at the local crafts-supply shop. I chose four or five tubes of inexpensive acrylic paint in colors to match the room's rug. Here's Mu Shu, showing you the rug's colors:

The colors are a little blanched out in this photo, but oh well. You get the idea. Next, I covered our patio table with newspaper and set the canvas flat and face up on the table. (Do this part outside because it can get messy.)

I handed a variety of tools--paint scrapers, plastic knives, paint-stiffened old  brushes, a palette knife--to Lovely Daughters #1 and #2 and a few of their friends. Each teenager grabbed a tube of color and a tool, and they went to town! I reminded them to paint the sides:

The painting went fast and furious! In a few minutes, I called "Time!" so they stopped just before filling the entire canvas with color. The painting needed some blank areas where the white showed through to let the whole thing "breathe."

And there you have it:

Modern art, perfectly colored for the room it hangs in, cheap as dirt, and the memento of a very fun time with teenagers:

Mu Shu approves.