DIY Geometric Painting

I’m not big on store bought art for my walls.  If I do purchase something, I like for it to come from a person and not a machine–or at least have some meaning if it comes from a machine.  We have bought art while on anniversary trips and family vacations that we treat as souvenirs.  Some of my favorite art on my walls came from my mom’s camera–I sent her out with some 35mm film (back in the days before digital!) and I printed it in black and white.  She came back with photos from a barn near the house I grew up in–you can see those in this DIY wall art post.  This time I’m the one who is creating the art and it’s going in the kids’ bathroom.

I was inspired by this quilt I saw on Pinterest.

Being the pack rat that I am, I already had this canvas sitting waiting just for this moment.  It was just under 20×24, so I drew 4″ squares–6 across and 5 down.

 I picked out a portion of the quilt that I liked for the color placement and used the quilt to decide which way the diagonal lines would go.  I marked each triangle with the color I would be painting it as well.

I got all the color on and decided I wanted a whiter white instead of the cream I had used.  This actually created some nice color layering.  I also wasn’t happy with the yellow and teal colors either–both were too dark for the look I wanted.  Layering different colors on top of what I had originally actually resulted in giving the painting more character and depth, so it was a happy mistake.  I also made sure the brush strokes went in triangular patterns and I built up the paint in some areas too.

This has the darker yellow and blue paints still.

I was trying out a natural frame in there, but decided I wanted a dark stain, so I used the Espresso stain that I also used on the leaning wall shelves.  The frame is just some scrap 1×2 I had in the garage.  I nailed it into the sides of the painting, so there’s not really the option of changing out the frame

I used a hint from Pinterest for hanging this on the wall and it is the first time EVER that I only have one nail hole in the wall!  It is awesome, check it out!  I tried using a clothespin, but it split on me so I used a scrap of 1×2.  It also made it easier to hang onto when finding the right spot on the wall for a painting this big.

What do you think?  I hope it doesn’t remind anyone too much of a quilt–I was going for a more modern look in there and a quilt doesn’t really fit that look for me (even though I absolutely LOVE the inspiration quilt.  Love. It.).  A geometric print is more what I was trying to accomplish.  Did you think “QUILT!” when you first saw it or “MODERN ART!”?