Painting Over a Canvas The Austin Liz Way

This is what I painted over. What language is that anyway?

The bookshelves in the library are from Ikea

As I mentioned in my blog about my new photo wall, I removed the painting that had been in place before and painted over the canvas. I had never really liked that painting, the perspective was all off and it just basically looked like something I could have painted, so I decided to actually paint something over the canvas myself that I would like better. I decided to hang it in the library because I have a big blank wall above the desk in there where it will fit perfectly.

Let it be known that I am not an artist. I rarely paint but I do like to from time to time when I'm feeling particularly deep or when I can't find the words to match my feelings, so I have a set of acrylic paints. They're not the best, and frankly, I don't really know what I'm doing, so please keep that in mind when reading this blog. Any real painters who read this may faint from the short-cuts and substitutions I used to make this happen.

Chicken party!

Since I'm not a painter I didn't really know what I wanted to paint so the first thing I did was google search "paintings" to get an idea of something I could paint. It would have to be rather abstract or rudimentary for me to be able to suitably recreate it. Our library has a bit of an African safari feel to it and so I decided to look for an African painting. I found a blog with a painting called "The Massai" by David Ndambuki (oil on canvas, 2006). I thought it was really beautiful and simple enough that I might be able to do something like it.

The huge brush on the far right was the main one I used.

I have been told that, if you're going to paint over a canvas, you should use a thick, chalky, paint-like substance called "Gesso" so I went to Hobby Lobby and dutifully bought my (freaking expensive) gesso. However, when I got it home I realized I'd bought the wrong stuff. The gesso I bought dries clear, which isn't that great if you're trying to paint over a canvas to start anew. I am nothing if not resourceful, however, so since I couldn't run off to Hobby Lobby I decided to use interior latex house paint instead. That's right, house paint. I happen to have a whole gallon of my interior wall color that is just slightly too light to match my walls. Also, while I was out poking around in the garage I found the color I used when we made Bella's "house bed" (I'll do another blog about that one) and it's a nice, rust-colored reddish-orange, so after the wall color was dry, I re-painted over it with the rust color.

These are the acrylics I used

My formal painting education comes from one night at a wine-drenched "chicken party" where my friend's mom (local Austin artist Virginia Vaughan) taught about 20 or so of us how to paint... you guessed it... a chicken! Well, actually it was a rooster. So I was desperately trying to remember what she had taught us from that party over a year ago.

 If you've dabbled in painting yourself you may know that there are certain advantages and disadvantages to the different media. Oil paint is wonderfully thick and full of texture, but it takes ages to dry, and you have to use paint thinner to get it off your skin. I use acrylic because, even though it doesn't have the great texture of oil, it dries much faster and it will wash off your skin and out of your brush with just water. I've got babies around, so fast drying paint and no paint thinner is my modus operandi.

My pallet and the background

I'm sure real painters would laugh at my set up with my little cup of water to rinse my brush (it was only good for setting my brush down - when I really had to rinse it I took it to the bathroom and ran it under the water tap) and my 35 different sizes of paint brushes (I ended up only using two sizes, huge and medium huge) and my mixed media paint (not only did I use interior house paint and acrylic, I also used fabric paint!) I needed a lot of yellow, orange and red, and my little tubes of acrylic were not working out so well all by their lonesome. I had bought them maybe five years ago and they weren't the best brand; the caps on some of them had broken off on the inside and allowed them to fully dry in their tubes, so there were certain colors I couldn't use at all. Instead I supplemented with my fabric paint, which was left over from another craft.

I'm starting on the people...

I painted the background first, while Vivienne was taking her morning nap. I used a mind of blotting motion, bringing the brush down vertically on the canvas over and over again. I layered it with the reds and oranges at the top and then added the yellows throughout the middle. I let the background dry while I got Vivi up and made lunch for Bella and I. When both the girls went down for their afternoon nap I was able to paint the people. Either my canvas is too narrow or I painted my people too big because I couldn't get them all on there, there's about three people who just didn't fit.

Finished painting!

I (obviously) didn't capture it the way Mr. Ndambuki did, but I have yet to travel to Africa, so that's my excuse. Believe it or not I seriously would love to go there some time. I haven't gotten the painting hung yet but when I do I will add the pictures. My friend's husband had traveled to Africa when he was in the military and had brought back some wooden pieces of art that they couldn't use in their decor so they've given them to us and when I get them hung I will add those pictures as well! I also found that I am not the only one who tried to recreate this beautiful work, check it out!

Framed P