RESIDUAL PAINT ART

Some of you know that I like to paint. For those of you that don’t know this, you can check out my art here, if you wish. Some of my favorite pieces are the accidental ones– without plans or inhibitions. One of these stumble-upon-creations is how I use my leftover pallet paint to create art. I don’t like disposing of residual things if I can come up with a use for them; and these are fun to make. Here is the original piece hung in Mya’s room (I swear this isn’t the only decorated room in our house, but it is one of my faves!)

Even when Mya was uber small, she was totally drawn to this painting. We would be napping on the rocker and she would wake up and point to it, signaling me to take it off the wall. She would grab it, feel the texture of the paint, and was wide-eyed from all the vibrant colors.

I recreated the original using the same process as before. Here is how I made it– so easy!

WHAT YOU NEED
Paint (residual paint)
Plastic tray (or plastic plate)
Pallet knife (or butter knife)
Scissors
Hot glue
Canvas or wood artisan board
Epoxy (optional)

1. For my paint pallet, I use plastic trays. (If you don’t have such a specific item, you could definitely use plastic plates.) Once you have enough dried paint to cover the size of canvas/ board needed, you are ready-to-go!

2. Take a pallet knife (or bread knife) and peel back the paint from the plastic tray. You can cut the paint with scissors for a straight edge. But otherwise, I like to tear the paint for a rough edge, more organic look.

3. Hot glue the paint to your artist surface. (I use canvas or wood artisan board– whatever I have on-hand in the desired size.)

4. Keep hot-gluing until your artist surface is completely covered. Overlapping paint layers will add depth and interest to your piece.

For the original piece, I applied a layer of epoxy to give it a reflective finish. I will probably do the same for these two as it adds that extra wham-bam-kazam!

And that’s all there is to it! Have fun with it because there’s no wrong way to do this. I plan to hang these two in the office (or “Blog Zone”).

Do you save things like glass pickle jars and used painters tape, in thoughts of potential creations? C’mon, I can’t be the ONLY one… right?!…

“Hi, I’m Ashley… and I have a problem.”

There. I said it.