I’m over on Make and Takes today sharing an easy way to display children’s work, by layering/cropping.
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Posts Tagged ‘art’
Inexpensive Minimal Gallery Wall
I’ve got another installment of the great Zero Budget Project. I don’t know why I’ve been dragging my feet on styling our bedroom. It’s not like it took that long or wasn’t fun to do. I guess I just needed to channel the right creativity.
I walked past these ribba frames while on a routine run to Ikea. They were $1.99 – and that spurred an idea. What if I did an entire wall out of these awesome cheap frames? I think the best part about these frames is that they’re an inch and a quarter deep. They don’t look as cheap as they are. So for just over $20 I was able to decorate this wall. Easy peasy.
It took a measuring tape, a level and a pencil. I measured out the width of the wall and graphed out where each piece should lie. It worked out to 10 inches apart. I went through old artwork and cropped down the pieces that would work (really only taking the pieces I liked that were just about 5×7). I had a few holes in my 11 piece series so I looked through Penelope’s stash and made a few new pieces as well.
Curating, prepping, cleaning, painting and hanging artwork took a few hours. All the while Chris was MIA, it was fun to reveal the newly cleaned and decorated space to him. Making him excited about our space really makes my efforts worth it.
The ribba frames come with these pre-cut mats, I didn’t use any of them for the artwork on display so I sandwiched an engagement photo of ours in between two of them using a flower frog (from Gather & Hunt).
I didn’t go with any specific style or color theme with this gallery, and I like it that way. I went with pieces that I liked and tried to arrange them in a way that would make them balanced.
I believe I made 5 pieces specifically for this gallery, it was a much-needed exercise to bust out the watercolors. Details on each painting after the jump.
Zero Budget Project: Family Art
I’ve hung up two pieces in our house this week. That’s pretty sad considering I have about 50 or more pieces all ready to hang. All of our artwork is just hanging out in a pile in a nook in my bedroom. It takes up quite a bit of space so there’s not much room on my side of the bed. It’s amazing how hanging art will make a house look lived in.
We have a very blank wall above the stairway. It’s one of the first things you see when you walk into our home. It needed art on it badly. I had this vision in my head to do some lettering with all the nicknames we call each other and just fill the entire paper with those nicknames (kinda like Penelope’s old room sign -scroll to bottom). I’m still not sold on that idea, so I just did: Chris, Melissa, Penelope and Felix forever.
I went through about 7 sheets trying to get it all perfect and this is the best that I came up with. I’m still not thrilled about it. But no matter. I’ve got loads of this paper, I’ll just practice some more. It’s not very hard to replace the art, either.
I like the idea of something about our little family and our names and having those words fill the page entirely, bleeding off the page behind the frame. What do you think? What should it say?
Sponsored: Discover Art You Love
This post is sponsored by Art.com. Find your art and love your space with art.com’s prints and museum-grade framing.
Follow Art.com via twitter and facebook.
Back when I was first learning how to paint with real watercolors (about 8th grade), we had an assignment in my french class. I’m not sure what it had to do with speaking the French language, but I loved it all the same: we had to replicate a french impressionist work of art. I chose an obscure Monet piece. As I was looking through and discovering artists of the French impressionism, Monet really struck a chord with me. I became just slightly obsessed.
A painting I did at the ripe old age of 13
Funny story, not long after I discovered my obsession with Monet I found out I needed glasses. BADLY. My mom and dad joked that my poor eyesight was the reason why I related to Monet’s impressionist style so readily. They were probably on to something. Or perhaps it was something about the impressionist movement that made real moments and landscapes so beautiful and breathtaking.
Since learning more about art and art history Monet still has a place in my heart, but I’ve grown to love all kinds of artists. Right now I’m totally digging on these fantastic artists:
- Claire Desjardins
- Ashley Goldberg
- Yves Klein
- Lulie Wallace
- Joan Miro
- Helen Covensky
- Alexander Calder
Even now, as I look back through the paintings I’m most proud of (interesting how most of them happen to be at my parents’ house) I find that each of them have a very painterly approach. Perhaps this is a coincidence because of the style of the first artist I ever loved?
Throwing paint isn’t always my go-to technique, but it’s fun to do. There’s something about the almost childlike or (this is such a ‘po-mo’ term I hate to say it but it’s true) visceral experience of the controlled chaos of making an image with bold brushwork.
Who was the first artist you ever loved? I would love to hear your stories! Let’s talk art, today.
Do you have an iPad? You can access Art.com’s Art Circles app where you can discover more art via curators (yours truly is on there), style, color and words. The app is absolutely stunning, free, great inspiration for your home and for getting your art on. If you don’t have an iPad, you can find my art picks at my You+Art profile page.
Love Your Space More with Galleries of Art
This post is sponsored by Art.com. Find your art and love your space with art.com’s prints and museum-grade framing.
Follow Art.com via twitter and facebook.
Over the last ten years, I’ve lived in ten different places. It’s a lot of moving around, if you ask me. Each space that I’ve lived in where I’ve taken the time to put artwork on the walls has felt like home. Even when I was just starting out in college, sharing a small apartment with 5 other girls, I made it a point to hang artwork on the walls.
I believe I have a few pictures from that time, I’ll have to do some digging and share with you later, but our apartment was the coolest, quirkiest apartment in our building. At least that’s how I felt.
Majoring in painting and drawing helped getting real art on my walls very early on. The biggest hurtle that I ever faced was how to group artwork together and frame it. I rarely worked in standard dimensions (and Ikea was a foreign thing to me at that time), so I would have to get creative. I still use a lot of the same techniques for hanging artwork today.
I feel it’s important to have at least a few framed pieces to put on the wall. It adds a heck of a lot of polish to your space, with very little effort. Do it yourself with a stock frame, or have it framed from the get-go.
I took a framing class from BYU’s Museum of Art back in college, it gave me a whole new perspective on art. Before we started framing art, we ventured into the bowels of the art museum and saw originals of the most inspiring artists that have ever lived: Vermeer, Miro, Warhol . . .
It was from the guys that framed and handled the art of those artists that I learned how to frame. I’m not saying I am any good, but it sure was a special learning experience to witness first-hand the care and respect was given for artwork.
For odd shaped prints and flat works, I like to use hangers. I scored these sample hangers in San Francisco a few years ago. I have about 20+ still, and love having them around for misc. artwork. It’s also great to have them around for giving art pieces. Simple, easy and they ship well.
I’ve also used bulldog clamps for irregular shaped pieces. They’re very low-impact, visually, and don’t affect the surface of the art.
For irregular sized pieces that are not flat, I like to use upholstery tacks and strips of leather. It adds a more tactile experience to the art, which I can’t get enough of.
I like to mix and match these high and low techniques for hanging artwork on my walls. It’s true to my diverse aesthetic and gives me no excuses for an empty space on my wall.
How do you hang art on your walls? Push pins? Stock frames? Vintage frames? I’d love to hear in the comments below.
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