Original Paintings in Seven Easy Steps

After moving to new-to-you living quarters, blank walls often cry out for decoration. Oil paintings would be cost-prohibitive, but not if the paintings are your own originals!
You demure, "I couldn't...I've never taken any painting lessons...I don't have a summer to devote to sketching and painting...I don't have enough money, nor do I have supplies...I wouldn't know where to begin."

Excuses be gone.

Without lessons, in less than two days, for about one hundred dollars, my daughters and I created three very large canvases to add visual interest to a very large, blank wall.

Obviously, these are not Guggenheim-quality creations.


However, the three paintings are pleasing, very basic, geometric abstracts in my daughter's bedroom colorway.

Remember elementary school art classes and finger-painting? It's time to revive the child within, put away defeatism, and join "Art for Amateurs". You can do this!

Here is a step-by-step recipe for painting three contemporary, original canvases.

STEP ONE: Gather supplies. Look in your cupboards for paper towels, masking tape, and tupperware-like containers. Add whatever you don't have to your "to-purchase list".

At a craft store like Michael's or A. C. Moore or an art supply store buy:
1. pre-stretched canvases (Choose sizes that will fill your space, taking advantage of the frequent fifty-percent-off-specials on stretched canvases.) and
2. a couple of large, natural-hair flat or round brushes. (We used two-inch wide flat brushes previously used to paint walls.)
Next, visit your favorite paint store--Benjamin Moore, Sherman Williams, Ace Hardware, or Home Depot--wherever you purchased your wall paint. Ask for four water-based colors:
1. their smallest can of your wall color,
2. their smallest can of the shade or two lighter than your wall color,
3. their smallest can of the shade or two darker than your wall color,
4. their smallest can of white paint, and
5. a plastic drop cloth.

STEP TWO:Find a bright place to paint, large enough to spread out the drop cloth. Pick a place safe for splashing, and check the weather to be sure the sun will be shining while you work.

STEP THREE:Wearing old clothes, pour the darkest color into a plastic container. You may want to dilute it a bit with water--not so thin as to be runny. Paint each canvas entirely in the darkest color, include the side edges. (Remember the dark-under-light principle.)

Water-based paint dries quickly, so you should work holistically and quickly--follow the fifteen minute rule. Now is not the time for perfectionism. Use broad strokes, letting them show. Have fun like you did in kindergarten with finger paints.

When the canvases are covered, STOP. Clean out your brush with soap and water, while letting the paintings dry thoroughly. Depending on the humidity, this should take no more than an hour.

STEP FOUR: When the canvases are dry, use masking tape to divide each into sections--using the "golden third" principle you learned in elementary school art class.

STEP FIVE: Next, dilute with water the same-shade-as-your-walls paint; again, aim for a consistency not so thick as to be dark, nor so thin as to run. Layer this wall-shade lightly over the top two-thirds of canvas number one, top one-third of canvas number two, and bottom one-third of canvas number three. (See illustration below.)

Don't cover the dark under-color completely, but let it peak through, allowing brush strokes to show. STOP. Clean your brush thoroughly. Let the canvases dry thoroughly--again about an hour should be sufficient.

STEP SIX: Now it's time to remove the masking tape and dilute the lightest tone in your wall-paint color family. Again with broad happy strokes, layer over the bottom third of canvas number one, the bottom two-thirds of canvas number two, and the top two-thirds of canvas number three. (In other words, cover lightly with the palest tone what has not been painted in the medium shade.)

Smudge with paper towel the break lines between thirds. Remember to paint the border edges of the canvases. STOP. Clean brushes thoroughly. Let dry.

STEP SEVEN: Finally, for the last step of the process, take your white paint and dilute it until it is a very thin, runny whitewash. Lightly brush the whitewash over all canvases to provide a gentle haze over each entire painting. STOP. Wash out brushes. Let dry.

Voila. Original art, ready to hang!

I hope this tutorial, written in response to a question on a former post(http://graciousinteriors.blogspot.com/2010/04/sneak-peek.html,) has encouraged you to bury your insecurities and resurrect your God-mirrored creativity.

Sunday Afternoon Stroll

Come with my husband and me on a walk in the country and see if you don't agree that "the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places" (Psalm 16:6).

First, we pass the secret garden maintained by a retired college professor of British history and his wife. He coaxes plants to grow from his rock wall. The wisteria over the front-door arbor is pruned at just the right time to produce lush hanging blossoms.

A few steps further, my husband and I squeeze hands as we pass the cutest teenage, Amish couple emerging from the covered bridge, he in his black pants, blue shirt, suspenders, and straw hat; she in her long back dress, white pinafore, and sheer white head-covering. Black tennis shoes in hand, their bare feet enjoy summer's first warmth. Because they are reserved about having their picture taken, I refrain.

Once across the bridge, we gaze through flung-open doors into a side garden.


Onward and upward we walk, to the top of a hill overlooking Amish farms.

Lancaster County is appropriately called "the garden spot" of the country, because the rich soil fills many closely-spaced silos.

After taking in the panorama, we return down the hill, past the veterinarian's farm.

Just before we get to the covered bridge, we hear, "Voom, voom, voom." A wee Amish boy, about two and a half years old, in his black pants, blue shirt, suspenders, and straw hat is holding onto the front of his father's push scooter urging him to go faster. Even if engines are outlawed by the bishop, you can't eradicate a boy's craving for speed!

Still smiling, my husband and I cross the bridge.

We take in the field of wild flowers in front of Bridge Acres.
Just inside the property, the rock garden beacons us to enjoy the last of the tulips... and the season's first rhododendron blossoms. Lush spring-green ferns are a feast for the eyes.

Near home, we take a shortcut through our neighbor's drive, enjoying her specimen trees as we pass.

Home again.

From the front, I hear the clip-clop of hooves and race to capture the scene. The horse is coming at such a fast clip I don't have time to focus the camera, but it is a perfect ending to a delightful Sunday afternoon stroll.

Treated Like Royalty

Just this week, a friend and I flew from Baltimore, Maryland to Ann Arbor, Michigan to visit a treasured mutual friend. Our hostess' family dubbed our coming "the state visit."
She certainly rolled out the red carpet.

The American flag was flying when we arrived.

Flowers sat in each of our guestrooms.

A tray table sat on my bed holding a gift bag, bottled water, and magazines to peruse.

Our hostess even outdid the Ritz by presenting our towels like a pretty present.

On her dining table, yellow tulips surrounded by lemon slices nodded their sunny hello, an idea she borrowed from Southern Living.

Finally, at each meal we used their best silver handcrafted by Old Newbury Crafters in Amesbury, Massachusetts. "Old Newbury Crafters...is credited with bringing the art of silversmithing to New England. Today, some fourteen generations later, the skills and methods of handforging sterling silver are still employed..."

Having lifted one of these beautifully balanced pieces of silver, I can attest to what the website claims: "the machine cannot match the quality, durability, look and feel of handmade silver"(www.silvercrafters.com).

How appropriate for our "state visit" that their pattern is "Windsor Shell".

Gourmet meals, plenty of laughter, and shopping crowned our visit.

Over the years, these friendships have been forged during a weekly Moms in Touch prayer time for all our children. For information on this non-denominational, international ministry which is in every state and 120 countries go to: www.momsintouch.org.

Finally, I thought you might enjoy seeing some vignettes from my friend's home. She majored in design at Notre Dame and has a real flare!

Nooks and Crannies

When you hear the expression "nooks and crannies", Thomas' English muffins may come to mind. However, the cozy spaces I am referring to are found in homes.As a romantic, I am drawn to remote hide-a-ways for reading, daydreaming, or meditating.

Built-in recesses are among the many reasons I like Jack Arnold's home designs (www.jackarnold.com). "Homes of Elegance" often include wonderful chimney corners or inglenooks.(For a wonderful post on inglenooks see: www.thingsthatinspire.net/2009/12/inglenook-fireplaces.)

Balancing the other side of his living rooms are openings for a bookcase.

An Arnold-designed dining room usually has an indentation perfect for a sideboard.


These homes all have steeply pitched roofs which create cozy window seats in upstairs bedrooms.

A small porch, complete with swing, is a perfect out-of-the-way corner for morning coffee or firefly-gazing on a summer evening.

In our home, the most used nook is my writing corner. This computer space is a perfect crypt for myriads of writing scribbles.

I also treasure the window indentation where I often read my Bible in the morning.

Here is another enticing crevice. Can't you envision a child curled in this nook with a good book?

If I let my imagination take flight, I can picture tiny people playing hide-n-seek in this house.

To quote L.M. Montgomery's beloved character, Anne Shirley, small tucked-away crannies certainly leave "scope for imagination."

When I was little I used to hide in a nook when I was sad. Somehow the enfolding hiding place comforted my young heart. Maybe that is why I still love sheltering crevices.

One of my favorite books of all time is The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch woman incarcerated for hiding Jews during the Holocaust. From a flee-infested barracks in Ravensbruck, she could vouch for the shelter of God's unfailing love. In unimaginable circumstances, she echos Psalm 91:1 and 2. "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty."