If you have a canvas that you painted that you aren’t really digging (this happens to me now and again) here is a project that can help you reuse that canvas in an easy way to make a new art piece. That’s the great thing about canvases, you can paint over them until you create something you like.

Things you’ll need:

• spray paint (at least two contrasting colors)
• fake or real flowers, sticks or leaves (but fake can be reused)
• canvas either painted or blank

So grab that old canvas or new if you aren’t a painter and paint it all one color (My pictures are demo-ing a few different projects). It is okay if portions of the existing painting show through the spray paint or provide texture on it. My view is that these bits of old art make this new one more interesting. It is also okay to use acrylic paint for this layer.

Next, place the fake or real flowers, sticks or leaves whatever you are using, into a nice composition on your canvas. Try an angled position or tearing the flowers or whatever you are using into smaller pieces to provide multiple scales.

Finally, begin spray painting, gently, over the objects onto the canvas. If the objects are light in weight, like leaves, then you will want to spray downward directly over them to keep them from moving out of place. Otherwise, I suggest spraying the whole piece at a slight angle because spray paint tends to look more even with this application.

When the piece is dry you can move the objects you used and a negative outline of them will be left. I think these paintings are simple but also interesting. If you want to take it to the next level you can add acrylic over it and use the shadows you have created to make a piece with a lot of depth. If you do not like the outcome you can simply start over… thus the beauty of working with canvas. If you have any questions feel free to ask 🙂