Acrylic on canvas

After a longish break, I wanted to share my latest painting with you. Last Wednesday was a public holiday in the Czech Republic, so I spent the day painting. It was so nice to get absorbed in something creative. I decided to paint the early morning sun over the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is a view from the yacht during a holiday to Sicily last summer. Good memories captured in paint :)

Mid-way through. Getting the sea right was not so easy.

Finished canvas :)

This was my first attempt at a large acrylic painting. I think I will try another soon!

Thrifty ways to get creative with Ikea frames

When I was last down at Ikea, I couldn't resist the bargain that was these 3 frames for the equivalent of a pound.

RAM frames from Ikea

They do the job if you want a postcard-sized frame, but are pretty dull - just a plain wood finish and a little rough around the edges. I decided some customisation was in order!

I have a favourite photo of a day out in Brighton that I wanted to display and thought a seaside-themed frame would be just the thing to top it off.

I do like to be beside the seaside 

I painted the frame with different coloured acrylic paints (bought in the art shop sale back in Strasbourg) and gave it a wash of white to make it look a bit driftwoody.

For the top decoration, I painted some small wooden kebab skewers and inserted them into some holes I drilled into the top of the frame. I then used some bakers twine to create a washing line, from which I could peg some stamps of Brighton that I had bought a while back (see, hoarding is a good thing!).

I then took inspiration from the postage stamp framed collage that I had seen on Sweet Paul and decided to put my dusty old stamp albums to good use. 

Purple stamp selection with matching frame

 

I picked out several purple stamps from around the world and then put them in a RAM frame painted green. I added a triangular stamp to the corner to add to the stamp theme. Again, this cost me nothing to make as I had all the stamps already and the green paint. Free art, what could be better?

Finally, I took a postcard of my favourite Mucha Art Nouveau piece, which is also my Blogger profile photo (I blogged about my trip to visit this sculpture here) and made a glitzy frame for it.

I found a very old pot of silver acrylic paint, which was just about usable and after the two coats had dried, glued on some craft gems that my boyf had given to me for Christmas. I think it sets the picture off well.

So, by spending just £1 on frames and using up craft materials and items I already had lying around, I have made 3 lovely new pictures to decorate my craft room :)

Strasbourg sunset triptych

It is always difficult to think of gifts for my Dad, and even more so because his birthday is right before Christmas. This year, I am on a homemade trip and have decided that pretty much all presents will be made by me and am even roping the boyf in to make some culinary xmas goodies for family! What to make for my Dad, though? I took some inspiration from Lucy over at Make Do and Blog and went with a unique oeuvre d'art.

This is the view from my balcony (lucky, huh?) and I will really miss it when we move back to the UK in a few weeks time.

On a bright, clear day you can see the Vosges mountains in the distance. Today is heavy fog, so not much of a view at all! I thought it would lend itself well to a triptych.

I bought a set of mini 7cm x 7cm canvasses at the local supermarket the other day and also some very reasonably priced acrylic paints and had a go last night at my first ever acrylic painting.

It wasn't easy to get the dark foreground to make it look like dusk, but the sky was fairly straightforward. Not having ever been taught how to paint, I didn't use any particular technique, just went for it!

The bumpy canvas wasn't that easy to paint on, but I got used to it after a bit.

Above is the third canvas with Strasbourg cathedral spire in it. There are fabulous views to be had if you want to climb the narrow, stone, spiral stairs to the rooftop.

I am pretty pleased with my final effort (difficult to stop fiddling with it!) and think it will make a nice little present for my Dad :)