Will That Painting Match My Sofa?

Several of my painting teachers have spoke about how sometimes people purchase art only based on if it matches their decor (or sofa). Well, I have been on a mission to create some artwork for myself that actually DOES go with my decor. I moved into my condo several years ago, and I've been trying to decide on how to accessorize my living room wall but couldn't come up with something interesting. Because this wall is very tall, with the peak of the ceiling in the middle and the left side has a double window, the available wall space is not symmetrical. (There is a similar design in the bedroom.) The width of the wall space for the art from the edge of the window to the right, is 15 foot. I've tried putting just one piece of art on it, but it looks so tiny.

I finally got a great idea this week to place many pieces all the same size in a line to fill up the space. Because I didn't want to buy that many pieces of production art at a local retail store, and I AM an artist, I needed to figure out a plan to make my own. I used to paint lots of watercolor paintings and would frame most in a 16 x 20 black frames. Most of these were still in my storage, so I got the idea to reuse these frames. Although I can cut my own mats, I didn't have enough of one color mat board. To make part of the project easy for me, I decided to buy precut mats in cream.

The next puzzle was to figure out what to paint and in which medium. I decided I wanted a soft flowing design and to use Golden Fine Pumice gel for texture under pastels. I spent most of one day playing with this and had many versions but finally had to give up when it just looked very dark and muddy - so I 'washed' the pastel off.

Overnight, I got the idea to use the same boards and try painting with acrylics. I needed to lighten up the color on the boards and found I was low on acrylic white. I have a habit when shopping in Home Depot, to check out the "Oops" paint, especially the ones in the little 1/2 pint sample cans they price at 62 cents. I usually pick a few up when I can find nice neutral colors. I thought I could use one of these to lighten up my boards but noticed when I pulled out all the little cans, the colors were all just what I was looking for to match some fabrics in living room! Eureka! These colors are very pale cold blue, cream, taupe and greys. The walls in the living room are 'builder's beige' with white trim.

I lined up my five boards on my painting table (I stacked two above the other three to take a photo here, but the design flows from one board to another) and painted a continuous flowing design. While they dried for a few hours, I got the frames cleaned up and tried to get all the hanging wires the same length. Then I had to figure out the spacing on the wall and get all the hanging nails in the right place.

After I got them all hung in order, I am very happy with the project. It turned out exactly the way I envisioned it. Good when that happens!