Up-cycled Art

by Jennifer Terry- Calm and Collected

I took a dumpster dived painting and turned it into personalized art for my beach-themed bedroom.

up cycled art, crafts, how to, repurposing upcycling, wall decor

So… I’ve had this painting in my attic for a few months.

A neighbor dumpster dived this for me because he knew I would use the frame. The painting is quite lovely, but not anything I could see myself using as is. I had an idea to stencil a quote over it, but hadn’t quite determined how to do that when I came across this:

HGTV Magazine had this idea for taking an ugly old paint-by-numbers painting and turning it into something fresh and different. It was a vertical painting and they turned it horizontally and painted over it. The original painting is a little more abstract now and you really just focus on the colors.

I knew I wanted to try this technique on my painting, BUT I still wanted you to know it was a beach scene underneath.

I purchased some removable label sheets and printed the words from the chorus of “Sea of Love” on them. Then I cut out all the words. And laid them out on my painting.

I played around with the placement of the letters because I wanted what peeked through the finished painting to make sense visually. I still wanted you to know it was a beach scene.

I was very worried about the clouds at the top of the painting. I knew I wanted to paint over everything with crisp white, but I was afraid you wouldn’t be able to make out the letters on the top of the painting against the white. No other color choice seemed any better, so I went ahead with painting over it all.

Admittedly, this next part of the project did not go quite as I had planned… The directions from HGTV magazine said to paint over everything in one thick coat. The problem was- the minute the paint touched the sticker paper the paper swelled up and started to pull away from the painting. So I had to do one light and very quick coat! The result is that you can still see some of the original painting bleeding through, but you can also make out the letters. I decided it has a bit of rustic look.

Actually I quite like the way it turned out. I feel like it was a nice way to bring someone else’s art into my room and still make it my own. What do you think?

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Carrie Easley on May 26, 2016
Does the painting have a signature on it and if so can you tell me who it was? Just curious because it looks like a painting that my mom did.

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Tidalgirl on Nov 04, 2016
Perhaps a lesson in do not mess with original work, use a print.

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ETHEL MARY CROSS on Nov 04, 2016
Stacy, I am so happy that yo found out the value of this painting, $3,200.00 in the 80's...i wonder how much more value it would have 36 years later....

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