An artist, I am not!

About 2.5 months ago I took my class to the Corcoran Gallery of Art. While browsing, I saw a painting there that was a huge canvas of vertical lines of varying shades of coordinating colors. It was awesome and painted by an actual artist. Despite that, inspiration hit me! I thought, "Hey, I can do that!" (Only part of my mind is delusional, but it still allowed me to move forward on the idea.) I had originally thought that my bedroom could use some homemade art. So, that weekend I went to Michael's and bought a set of 3 12x16 canvases, along with some coordinating shades of blue paint. I was going to try to paint some varying stripes on those canvases and try to create something cool for our bedroom. (More on that another day!)

I also bought a 3rd 8x11 canvas and some purple craft paint. I ended up returning the extra canvas and used one of the set of 3 for a bathroom project. I have changed my guest/daughter's bathroom a bit but am waiting to show the final project. Anyway....I decided to try my hand at painting something for the bathroom first before tackling the bedroom. Let the laughter begin...

My first step was to tape off varying sized stripes on to my canvas. I forgot a picture of that step, but here it is after I painted my purple stripes.

 I think I painted about 3 coats. I then peeled off the tape when it was still a little wet, as I've read that helps to make sure it wouldn't bleed. Well, unfortunately, it bled, but the hubs tells me that's because I didn't press the tape down hard enough.

Anyway, I thought it looked crappy. So, I put it aside for several weeks. In the meantime, Kate texted me a cool picture of some art she had made for one her daughter's rooms.  Fast forward about a month and a half. My mom and I were at Michael's looking for supplies for a certain little peanut's birthday party. I wandered over into the Martha Stewart section and was looking at the stencils. I saw a long moroccan looking one - I thought that was what I wanted so that it would jive with my original idea of stripes.

See that long blue one on the little tray? That's what caught my eye...

(See my foreshadowing??) My mom had a 40% coupon for some of her art supplies at Michael's so I bought a small pack. Anyway, it took my three weeks to actually try it out.

But, I did this weekend and didn't take any pics of my process. I guess I wasn't convinced that it would turn out! First, I needed to repaint the whole canvas. So, I painted about 3 coats on the white stripes to try to match the same tone of purple on the purple stripes. I then tried to stipple (haha!) the long stencil horizontally along the top of the canvas. Well, the canvas is long and the stencil was short so I promptly gave up because I knew that I wouldn't be able to make those straight. (Remember my protractor table??)

So, I tried to use some of the small rounded stencils and make an "organic" arrangement of blobs along the canvas ala Kate.

Et voila:

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I think it will look really cute in a bright white frame instead of just hanging as a canvas. So, I am waiting to show you it in the room until we frame it. Then I will show you how the bathroom has evolved.

So, all that to say that the Corcoran inspired me to try some art. I came away with the idea that I am not an artist, but at least I tried something :)

I will show you the bedroom art I created in a few days. I am at a loss for next steps and could use some advice!