I have a love for big art. But it can be expensive, and I’m on a budget. Solution: Make my own.

First, I figured out what size would look good above my couch with keeping what I was going to paint in mind, took the measurements and headed to Lowe’s. I found some great cheap wood that was 2 x 2 x 96”, I used 2 to create my 30 x 60” frame, and had them cut it of course.

I found a photo of a tree in Charleston that I wanted to recreate with a modern look. I traced the photo in Illustrator, so I could easily simplify the photo (like color by numbers). Since, what I would be painting would be simple, I wanted to add some texture and depth. I found a nice ivory raised patterned fabric (I also used to recover my dining chairs). The paint came from what I had left over from painting other rooms and projects.

I would guesstimate that I spent about $3 wood + $19 fabric + $3 brushes = $25. I don’t think that’s too bad! The cheapest I’ve seen in stores is usually around $500; and it is not just about the price difference, but I got a personal piece of artwork I am proud of and it ties all of the colors of my place together.

I will upload the finished painting when I finish! ha

Tags: painting

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 7:20 pm and is filed under Art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.