A candy shop of abstract art

Michelle Armas in the latest Adore mag

Have you noticed all the gorgeous abstract art in bright colours going around of late? I can't stop thinking about having something like this in our home, particularly one with yellow and pink, a combination I am drawn to. Already, I am forgetting how deceptively hard and time-consuming it is to paint and I'm really tempted to have a go at doing my own. This style of painting appears very different to my previous attempt at imitating the bolder, graphic designer prints of Florence Broadhurst, Kelly Wearstler and Jonathan Adler but I really want to give it a go. 

Michelle Armas

I detailed in an inspiration file post that I'm going for modern, vintage glamour with a touch of Hollywood Regency on a budget for our living room. A key part of my plan is a black and white scheme with a few yellow touches, a bright piece of abstract art is a bit of a side step. At first, I doubted whether this would look part of the room but after looking at the work of Anna Spiro, Kelly Wearstler and Jonathan Adler, I think I could make it work. If I can actually paint something decent that is.

Kelly Wearstler's home via hellolovelyinc.blogspot.com

Michelle Armas

Jen Ramos

Ish and Chi

I wish my mum had nothing better to do than paint something for me as she is an artist leaning towards abstract works. Last time she did something for me, it was very different to her usual style (you can see it here)...maybe that's why it took a few years to make it to my wall. This would certainly be more her thing and if she wasn't on holiday, I'd be begging for a lesson at least. I don't even know if I should buy oil or acrylics for a work like this. This type of painting seems the type where you should throw caution to the wind, leave perfection by the wayside and dive right in for some freestyle paint sloshing! Do I dare?!

Imitation designer prints complete!

Hallelejah! The six black and white paintings for the living room are finished! I've been imitating designer prints as part of our living room makeover. Two of these were painted years ago from Florence Broadhurst prints and in March I took some advice from Naomi at Live Breathe Decor and started working on four more.

At that point, I was working on another Florence Broadhurst and went through the process of stencilling designs by Kravet and Kelly Wearstler (see that post here). For the final design, I recently chose a Greek key pattern to tie in with the trim on the curtains in this room. After some deliberation, I went with a Jonathan Adler key as it fitted the bill as a bold, graphic print by a renouned designer and it was simple enough to imitate. The full list of the six designs is as follows. Top from left to right: Florence Broadhurst Tropical Floral, Kelly Wearstler Imperial Trellis, Florence Broadhurst Aubrey. Bottom from left to right: Florence Broadhurst Circles and Squares, Jonathan Adler Greek Key, Kravet Velvet Gate Tuxedo.

No project like this is complete without incident. Of course, my little incident occured on the home straight, just as I was thinking what a great choice the Adler Greek Key was. Compared to the finer, broken lines of Circles and Squares, it was a walk in the park. It was set to be the quickest painting of all and I was starting to smell the finish line. Then, alas! I realised I was painting black where I was meant to leave white. Parts of the key were now in reverse. That teaches me for getting distracted by the beautiful scenery in the TV coverage of the Tour de France (I paint with a small canvas propped on my lap in the living room)! As annoying as this was, I carried on and finished this hodge-podge imitation then started with a fresh canvas. Hours and hours later, I had seven canvases. In the photo below you can see the poor, rejected canvas to the right. 

I'm not planning to let this canvas go to waste even though it won't make it to the wall with the other six. I have got so used to the look of a canvas propped on a lamp table that I'm thinking of putting this one there. 

Once again, I have used our hallway as the backdrop for these photos (wall painting is now complete in there!). Currently only three paintings are hanging and the others are propped on the mantle and lamp tables until the wall painting is complete and new picture hooks are installed. I'm hoping all will be put in place and revealed soon (plaster restoration in progress!).

Linking to:

Craft-O-Maniac

Crafty Confessions

 

Imitating designer prints for the living room

When trawling through magazines, blogs and websites for inspiration of the interior variety, as I so often do, many of the same prints keep popping up on fabrics and wallpapers. Of course, these are not usually available at local fabric and wallpaper suppliers and when a stockist is found at a specialty shop, you quickly realise that there is a specialty price tag that has you scurrying back from whence you came.

L-R: Florence Broadhurst Aubrey and Florence Broadhurst Tropical Floral ($143 per metre)

Almost four years ago now, I took matters into my own hands and painted two Florence Broadhurst designs (Tropical Floral and Aubrey, the latter of which happens to be one of my brother's names) onto small canvases measuring 30 x 40cm. By painted, I mean copied. Painstakingly so, by hand. As part of my living room makeover, I'm currently copying another Florence design, a Kelly Wearstler design and one by Kravet onto canvases of the same size. It's all part of the plan to add bold, graphical prints to the room.

 

L-R: Kelly Wearstler Imperial Trellis and Florence Broadhurst Circles and Squares

Kravet Velvet Gate Tuxedo (you may remember me falling in love with this on Carrie and Big's headboard in SATC2)

After starting Circles and Squares freehand, and remembering how long that takes, I decided to try the others with a home-made stencil. For the Imperial Trellis, I printed a piece of the pattern on A3 paper, cut out all the black and painted over it. Later I touched up all the bleeding to give a nicer finish.  For the Kravet Velvet Gate, it was a little trickier because the stencil would have fallen apart if I cut all the black out. I also had to create a repeating pattern myself of the computer first as I could only find one repeat online (as above). In the photo below, you can see I cut some of the pattern out then used a pencil to trace it and now I'm filling in with paint.

My Kravet Velvet Gate Tuxedo stencil

Progress shots of my painted imitations of Imperial Trellis, Velvet Gate Tuxedo and Circles and Squares. Plus a sneak peek of new cushions from Etsy.

I'm quite pleased with the progress so far, although I'm starting to wonder if I should be learning to screenprint or, better yet, creating my own original designs. I do love the addition of designer prints in the room though, albeit with a home-made twist. To make six canvases in total, I need to find another iconic design to copy. As always, the hunt for things that make my heart sing continues!