easy abstract art

If you’re anything like me, then life has been feeling a little out of control lately. 

When I sat down to to this project, I had no idea how therapeutic it would be for me. This art is so much fun, but if I’m being totally honest, it was completely out of my comfort zone. If you’re familiar with my art, I like rarely dabble in abstract, and I don’t really know why.

Maybe I like control. Maybe it’s a thing. Probably so much so, that it’s a theme for me. 

But maybe, just maybe, I’m looking at it all wrong. 

If you’re familiar with the enneagram, I’m a 4. I told a therapist friend of mine once, that I could be happy at home all day, just creating. I’d never run out of inspiration. I always felt I was probably a little odd. But he told me that this is my way of making sense of a chaotic world.

From my home, to little pieces of happy that I love to create, another statement has never resonated so deeply with me.

When he said that, I finally understood why I do what I do.

For me, creating has always been the ultimate expressive coping mechanism.

This is why I loved this particular art project so much.

Because it was something completely new, and I really had to experiment. But that’s the best part. If you’re unsure about tackling something like this, I’m going to share a few tips from the ‘learning curve’ today. Rest assured you will a. love it. b. make something totally beautiful from the unpredictable.

As an art professor told me in college, paint is the most forgiving medium. So not only can you not mess this up, it’s pretty easy to start over.

We just feel like that’s really appropriate right now. 

And it’s a beautiful opportunity to create.

Here’s a fu little sneak peek: I basically took each canvas from this: 

To this. 

This is going to be so fun!

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• canvas of any size – these were 20 x 20 squares 
• ready to pour acrylic paint 
– Depending on what you plan to make – buy accordingly. 6 canvases used up a few bottles. you will need a LOT of white if you want something in the color schemes you see here. If you want darker, less white. One large bottle per 20 x 20 canvas is about what I averaged – smaller bottles for each color you wish to use.
• drop cloths + dowels or wood to prop the canvas on {faster drying}
• a blow dryer – preferrably one that you don’t care about + space – because it will splatter.
• gloves are always nice {We had some because of our chemicals from our pool. I didn’t end up using them, which is why I never have a nice manicure.}

Your work station doesn’t have to be fancy! Just an area with plenty of room to blow air in the other direction. Case in point. Also, does it make anyone else nervous how close I am to our nice furniture? You can also go outside, but the weather wasn’t my friend that day. And everything was fine.

What we loved about Michaels is that it’s shipped straight to our door! Winning. 

They now carry over 1,900 colors, sizes, styles and sizes of craft and DIY paint! I don’t know about you but that’s right up my alley.

And… Be sure to check out our stories today for what my daughter would call a satisfying video on the process. I’ll be archiving them, too.

So to get started, lay out your canvas on the pieces of wood underneath. Your paint will basically blow to the edges, and this helps keep the paint off from underneath. 

Add your first color. You can also do it on the edges, and as you go. I’ll be showing an example of one of those, below. 

Blow gently with your blow dryer, pushing it to the edges of your canvas. You can play with the effects of the paint based on speed. I even found that moving it around varied the direction of the paint, and changed the way the colors were dispersed in ripples of fun color.

I got a little better at it below, but multitasking with a camera was hard. So be sure to check out our stories as I mentioned above.

Here’s another shot of the process, with more paint. 

If your paint doesn’t spread to the edge, just add more white paint and small bits of color as you go. This helps cover the entire canvas.

Our kids see us do a lot of projects. To the point where they’re practically immune. You know it’s a good project when they’re wowed. We plan to tackle this again soon, they’re dying to make their own. 

Keep your blowdryer angled on it’s side, and be careful not to hit the paint. I did that a few times… the painting was fine but my blow dryer needs a good cleaning.

Straight down makes more of a drop effect which is also fun. 

Turning your canvas as you go is also good, because it keeps the paint from blowing right on you. 

Don’t you just love the way these turned out? So fun and happy!

If you make these, we want to see!

Please be sure to take a photo and tag us! We’d love to see what beautiful things you create. 

And if you have any questions or something to add, please let us know below. We’d love to hear and help in any way that we can. 

Happy painting everyone!

Ohhh I also felt like this space needed a refresher of sorts {affiliate link} – new rug from here and the price is fabulous.

Have an inspired day!