DIY Abstract Painting: Rectangles Feat. Aluminum Foil

Project Live It aspires to encourage people to try new and interesting things and to help others to do the same. I'll be posting what I've been inspired to try/learn/see/do each week.

I'm coming up to two years now living in this apartment and it's still looking a little...minimalist. Not that that's a bad thing. After getting rid of tons of junk upon moving for residency, I've been much more discriminating in letting things into my home. However, slowly but surely, I've been adding things that catch my eye.

One ongoing struggle has been decorating the walls. Thanks to some inspiration from Virginia at LiveLoveDIY, I decided to take matters into my own hands last weekend. This was the result...

These paintings actually turned out better than I'd expected, especially considering how cheap ($14 for the pair, thanks to Dollarama), quick (30 minutes for the whole project), and simple (I had no troubles despite a complete lack of art skills and a little post-call delirium) they were to create. Here's how I did it:

I gathered materials from the dollar store: canvases ($3 each), paint ($1.25 each), and a paint brush ($1.25).

I also cut up some aluminum foil for a bit of lustre.

Then I laid my canvases out on some cardboard (on the linoleum for easy clean-up!) and poured my paints onto plastic lids.

I started by dipping the paintbrush in water, then in white paint, and coating the top three quarters of the canvas in white.

Next, I went for the light blue, starting with more paint on my brush at the bottom of the canvas, then watering it down/mixing it into the white paint the further up I went, to create an ombré gradient. Don't forget to paint the edges of the canvas!

While the paint was still wet, I laid down my aluminum foil rectangles at the white/blue interface, pushing them down gently so that they stuck. For variety, I placed some shiny-side-down and others shiny-side-up.

I painted coloured rectangles at the white/blue interface, using a rectangular dish sponge dipped in paint. I started with the lightest paint colour, then progressed to the darkest, not waiting for the paint to dry in between. I partially overlapped the rectangles with one another and with the aluminum foil for a bit of depth and colour-mixing.

I waited around 10-15 minutes for the paint to dry, then added small rectangles of silver paint with the paint brush.

And voila!

If you're looking for something simple and affordable to brighten up your walls, I'd definitely recommend giving this (or any kind of art) a try. It's super fun, satisfying, and perfectly customizable. And if you mess up (which technically isn't even possible with abstract art), you can always just paint over your canvas and try again.