Painting with acrylics and gold leaf

When my kids were young, I used to buy them canvases and let them paint their little hearts out. I have their masterpieces sprinkled throughout the house. Well, I have this wall I’ve been wanting something new and abstract in my family room. Remember last November when I began this family room and bar makeover? Here it is. Ya what month are we in? Yup. Ok so only a couple more things before I share it all and it’s complete. And this is one of them. So today I’m channeling my inner artist and letting my creativity flow through art. And I’m going to share with you painting with acrylics and gold leaf in case you ever want to let some creativity flow like this. I preface this by saying I’m a total amateur. This is my first piece that I’ve taken seriously. But it definitely won’t be my last. So, with that, let’s go! (wink!)

You will need:

Canvas
Acrylic Paints
Gold Leaf
Clear protective spray sealer
Brushes
An old plasic cup with water
Glue
Molding paste
Plastic shower curtain
Paper plates

First I want to start by telling you to READ this because I created this by reading some other blogs on how to do the gold leaf and followed her instructions. Had I known better I would have done things differently. Not that it’s wrong, but I’m prefacing by saying it seemed backwards… you’ll see why as we go along!

So first, use your shower curtain to lay your canvas on. I just plopped it on the floor in an open space. Since I’m not an artist, I don’t have an easel and I didn’t want to invest in one since I didn’t know how much I’d enjoy this and want to do more. And this made for easy and inexpensive cleanup.

I began by painting the base of the canvas white, and then using my fingers to apply the molding paste however it came to me. It was really kinda fun getting messy!

Side note… be wary of your furry friends at home. Angel was a curious kitty and I had to keep her away and she intuitively knew to not get too close after that.

The next step I did was the applying of the gold leaf. Here’s where I suggest doing this AFTER you paint your canvas the way you want. Apply the glue where you want to have the gold leaf. I tried the sheets and that was really a challenge to peel it back and keep it in one sheet. And to be frank, I wanted more texture and something more abstract, so the gold “sprinkles” were a better fit for what I wanted. So I did just that. I just sprinkled them… and laughed! I was like…. um I hope I’m doing this right! ha! I got messy with it again and used my hands to make sure it was placed and spread how I wanted it to set. Like I said, this was my first time, and whether or not I did it wrong or right, that’s how I did it. And it seemed to work. Once I let that set and dry, I sprayed a setter to keep it set.

After that, I just began to mix colors to begin my creation. That’s where I used the paper plates. It was the perfect place to mix the colors and throw em away when I was done. I used a big old plastic cup and put water in it for my brushes.

I worked around the gold leaf and the next thing I knew, I had this fun colorful piece of expression.

So what do you think? Do you like my creation? Would you try painting? I have to say….. I think I see more of these in my future and it EXCITES me! I had no idea I’d love it like I do. That is a cool thing… to learn something new about yourself. We never stop evolving.

Gold Leaf / Acrylics / Brushes / Molding Paste