DIY Abstract Artwork

Now that our home is finally coming together, I have been hunting for artwork. Our walls feel so bare. I think for a lot of people, myself included, choosing artwork feels very intimidating. You may fall in love with a piece and find it doesn't go well in the room at all....or it makes the room feel dark, or it's too colorful, or it doesn't have enough color. Then you're out a hundred bucks because you can very seldom return original artwork. I've searched several online retailers for artwork but never seem to find anything I like. I'm a fan of abstract art, but most of the pieces I am attracted to are several hundreds of dollars. Bummer.

I kept buying mirrors to fill up wall space, but too many mirrors in your house will make you look a little self-obsessed, am I right? I started hunting for pieces I liked and noticed a trend in my selections. I clearly was in love with black and white simple abstract pieces like the one below. They go everywhere, even in a room filled with brown, and they add understated elegance to any room. Mixed with black and white photo pieces as a gallery wall, they match effortlessly. 

(Source: unknown)

I decided to paint some of my own. I wanted to use watercolors instead of oil or acrylic paint because abstract watercolor paintings tend to have a messy look, which would result in my own rookie painting looking "professional." I grabbed gold frames with a matte included from Target. Using 6x8 inch watercolor paper, I grabbed some black watercolor paint and started painting imperfect circles.

I decided to paint a few pieces with different ideas in mind, and picked my two favorite to hang in the frames. The paint takes about 1-2 hours to dry, but I waited a full day to allow the paint to dry before putting them in my frames.

My recommendation is to make each painting different, but stick with a theme. My theme was circles, so I painted some with large circles, some with little circles, some where they fit to the size of the media and some where the circles went off the page. Don't feel like there should be an exact way you make your own. The beauty is, you can make several attempts and you only have to pick a few to go in the frames! I think this project could be fun as a girl's night with a glass of wine. Who knows, maybe the more you sip the better your abstract will look! However you artwork turns out, it will be your own one-of-a-kind masterpiece!