Today I want to talk about free artwork. Lately I’ve been all about art. Real art – either I’m motivated to paint or I’m purchasing prints made by artists. However, art can be expensive.
When we had new countertops put in our kitchen recently, we also decided to go ahead and have both the powder room and the guest bath countertops replaced. Which led to new mirrors, faucets, towels… well you get the picture.
In the powder room I had this paint by number painting that I did awhile back.
It was fine, but I never LOVED it.
Janet Hill is one of my very favorite artists.
Her art has the best sense of humor that just reaches out and grabs me!
A few years ago I purchased “The Disappearance of Lonnie Lightfoot” print from her.
My Granny had a closet filled with her formals, jewelry and scarves when I was small.
If I was very good I was allowed to play in that closet, so this print reminds me of pulling up a chair and getting lost in all of my Granny’s finery.
I had it framed with “gaudy joo-ry” all around it and hung it in the powder room.
This print was my inspiration for making a small gallery wall where my paint by number used to hang.
I recently ordered this print “Selfie at the Mermaid Public Fountain” to go with it.
Someday, if I’m lucky, I will have all of the photos from her collection on my powder room wall.
But not today.
So I set out to find free artwork to go with my prints.
Frames:
The first thing I did was dig around in my decor closet for unused frames.
My JH print was in a white frame, so that’s the color scheme I was looking to go with.
I found several different shapes and sizes that I knew would give my gallery wall visual interest.
After a good cleaning and even a couple of coats of paint on a few, I was ready to look for artwork.
Artwork:
I googled free art work and came up with a ton of sites that you can download just about any style of art you can imagine.
I found several that I felt like would be perfect.
Some of my favorite sites are:
Using card stock, I simply printed out the artwork that I found in the sizes I needed.
Framing:
Now it was simply a matter of framing my prints.
And deciding what order I want to hang them in on my gallery wall.
Create Your Own Prints:
One other thing that I used for one of the smaller prints was the app Waterlogue.
I’ve used it several times before and love it.
Using your own photos, you can create watercolor prints in your phone.
Again, it’s simply a matter of printing them off and framing.
It really couldn’t be simpler!
The hardest part of this whole process was deciding what artwork to use.
The best part?
It’s free!
Until next time….