From abstract to landscape

[Donna T]

I've been wondering if I could buy a canvas "wall decor" and paint over it because I like the look of a framed piece but I don't want to commit to a big expensive blank canvas. I found this one at Target and my husband kindly lifted several of them off the wall in order to find one where the canvas (or whatever it is) was tight. Some of them are so ridiculously loose! This one was on sale and the "wood" frame looked good from a distance. I unpacked it and inspected the corners in the parking lot; all good there. I gave it three coats of gesso to cover up the print and hoped for the best. It's a big one for me at 30in. x30in. and it felt good to paint big. Acrylic on faux canvas

Here's what it looked like from the store:

Here's the new version. The field is a little brighter in real life but this is as good as I could get it:

 

[Jo Castillo]

Wow Donna! That is so beautiful. It could be where I have lived. Makes me homesick. I'm smiling so big. Love it!

 

[Arnie]

Beautiful. Like the feeling of space and distance, and those majestic clouds.

 

[Donna T]

Thanks so much, Jo and Arnie. I'm glad the feeling of space comes through. My son, who lives out where it's open like this, has offered to buy it. I will trade it for a few of his awesome homemade burritos.

 

[Terri]

You're a genius for trying this - and you totally pulled it off! Great idea to get a framed canvas.

What a beautiful landscape you created! Your clouds just make me sigh. I hope you get a lot of your son's homemade burritos for this wonderful piece.

 

[MurrayG]

Fantastic transformation, those hills meld into the foreground juuuust right

 

[Bartc]

Since I'm no fan of abstract, a vast improvement to my eye. Clever re-use of materials. And I do like YOUR landscape!

 

[Donna T]

Terri, we’ll see how much of a genius I am depending on how this thing holds up up over the years. Hopefully the three coats of gesso will prevent those abstract squiggles from showing through! It’s a bummer that most of these canvases are either loose and floppy or they’ve been “enhanced “ with clear acrylic blobs that are supposed to make the artwork look authentic.

Thanks Murray and Bart. I appreciate knowing that you both like it. Now I’m tempted to try another one. It’s possible to order a real blank canvas in this size but the shipping costs … aargh!

 

[txomsy]

Now I’m tempted to try another one.

Please, do, it looks great so far.

 

[PaintBoss]

Donna, your painting looks great!
I so enjoy your landscapes.
What a vast improvement over that sad abstract. I hope my old art profs don’t come and beat me for saying that-especially the ones that taught art appreciation, but… it is what it is! I said it. Lol
I would like to suggest to you and everyone to start looking at your thrift stores. You get big canvases that are not thickly painted because they’re actually just print, in wonderful frames of all different styles. Just keep going back as different pieces come into the store. I’ve done several of them. You’re right, they can be tight or they can be loose. I bought one so cheap for like five bucks and it’s big. It’s like 2 x 3‘. I gessoed over it. It was a great big dark plum floral thing before, but it was not very representational. It is loose and I even sprayed water and then put a light gesso coat over the back hoping it would tighten up. In this case it didn’t. But it was a weird fabric. Anyways, I hope to do something very abstract on it and playful because it was so cheap. The frame looks great so it’s not much of an investment to experiment. Some surfaces are a little more glossy and slick than the others. Or the fabric is a little weird. Mine is almost like a nylon type. I did a light sanding before gesso-ing it. You could put a house primer on if you’re doing acrylic. I taped over the frame with low tac tape, so that I won’t get any paint on it. I can just easily pull that off and have a nice clean frame when the painting is dry.
And here’s a piece I absolutely loved and it was a real hit in the Cambridge Centre of the Arts, Art Attic fundraiser in Ontario a few years ago. It is a great reminder not only for painters and artists, but for life in general. I don’t know who submitted it to give them credit. I feel like I need to put one of those on my wall just to remind me to not take things so seriously!

 

[Donna T]

Thanks txomsy.

Thank you, Christine, and you are so right about the weird canvas materials out there. I thought about sanding it lightly but was too afraid to put any pressure on it. If we weren’t out of Kilz primer I would have used that and then put a coat of gesso on top. I look at these paintings on Facebook Marketplace but without being able to assess them in person I don’t want to commit to buying one. It’s those globs of plastic “texture” that kill me. Don’t they know that people like us can’t paint over the globs? What’s worse is that nowhere on this piece was there any mention of the original artist. Someone painted it - abstract squiggles and all. I look forward to seeing one of your works on your canvas someday. I’m guessing it won’t be a dark plum floral.

 

[PaintBoss]

Thanks Donna. I don’t mind florals and I don’t mine dark plum. But this was really muddy. It wasn’t really much of anything and had a few gold swirls too. Yep, I know about those plastic globes. The glicee prints. If you’re doing abstract, sometimes you can make it work depending on the style you do. But you know for 10 bucks or less you can get a great canvas of all kinds of sizes with a good frame, many styles there as well, and you can generally make it work. Now the one I’m doing, I don’t think I would probably sell because it is a loose canvas when you touch it and I’m gonna have to be careful painting around where the wood connects to the back of the canvas so I don’t get a line. But other ones were absolutely fine. This one was just for me to play on.When I gessoed the back of it, in the light, even though the front was gessoed too, you could still see the pattern of the old painting. I hope that leaves once I paint over it. But I would never sell it like that.