How to Paint Large on a Budget

'Change of Seasons'               5x5            pastel         ©Karen Margulis
click here to purchase $45

I don't usually do this.  I'd rather have the work of other artists in my home.  I have some of my work hung but  I don't usually paint something for a specific place in my home.  I get the leftovers. 

I have early an Spring Cleaning bug. My daughter is moving into her own apartment making us empty nesters for the first time. I feel like cleaning and redecorating my poor neglected house.  I don't mean renovating or anything expensive....just some change of colors. New area rugs and throw pillows are all I need.  Well I would like a nice big painting for my kitchen. I have a big empty wall so today I decided to break out my big 36x36 canvas and paint something for the kitchen.

 I have held onto this big gallery wrapped canvas waiting for the right inspiration. It is the right size and fits my budget perfectly!

The original painting. I left the blue as my underpainting and followed the mountain shapes in my painting 

I found this huge heavy duty gallery wrapped canvas at a local thrift store. I didn't buy it for the painting which wan't really my taste....but it was in excellent shape and only $6.  I knew it would come in handy someday.

Before starting on my painting I dod a small pastel study with my ideas. I wanted to paint the trees in my front yard but using my favorite colors of Turquoise and yellow.  Once I was satisfied with the study I was ready to paint on the canvas.

The finished painting. I will paint the edges black.

In another Budget friendly choice, I decided to paint with acrylics. I like to use Interactive Acrylics. I don't have that many tubes of paint though so to further stretch my budget I used several small jars of house paint samples. I bought the little paint samples when I was painting my studio so I have several shades of turquoise. They were perfect for my trees.

Since I was painting so large, I didn't have big enough brushes. I used several of the super cheap 2 inch brushes you can find at craft stores for 50 cents a piece.

I am pleased with my big painting. ( I had a hard time getting the colors to be true in the photo. The yellows are much lighter and creamy)  I have friends who mine thrift stores all of the time looking for large canvases to paint on. They don't mind thick texture or layers of paint. They just incorporate it into their paintings.  I'll have to join them in a search for another big canvas! This was too much fun.

'Change of Seasons II'        36 x 36       acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas