We had a garage session yesterday.  And when we were done we had art.

Here’s all it takes.  Some unstretched canvas.  We got ours at the Art Box in Geneva.

Side note: The owner is very talented.  I love the direction his art is taking lately.  His shop is both a studio and art supply store. I believe he also teaches. Ironically, his shop is right across from the Egg Harbor Cafe.  So many good things are located near an Egg Harbor Cafe!!

Anyway, you’ll need unstretched canvas and Golden liquid acrylics (which can be purchased at Blick’s in Wheaton.)

That’s it.  And water.

I want to give a shout out to Alyce from Fine Line Creative in St. Charles.  I took a class with her and learned this technique and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning to do poured paintings.  She is a lovely woman, and has the patience of a saint.

As you can see, kids love this technique.  It’s very freeing.  Here’s the dialogue running through my son’s head:  “Oh that is so cool.  I see an angel, with people all around. Wow, look at that, now I see a witch and spooky clouds.  This is so COOL!”

Adults, here’s the dialogue that runs through our head: “That is so cool.  Oh but we’re wasting a lot of canvas, and look that expensive paint is just running down and we’ll have to throw it out, and oh maybe I shouldn’t put that here and what if I ruin it? Maybe the purple is too dark and where do I start and what if I just make a mess.”

I remember a woman in the class who was paralyzed by the blank sheet.  She stood holding her paint over it for what seemed like hours, trying to talk herself into letting go.  She didn’t know where to begin.

The beauty of this process is that the artist is not entirely responsible for what is created.  The paint plays a role which you absolutely cannot control or predict.

That takes a huge burden off of us. It doesn’t have to be perfect. I don’t have to be perfect.  Paint does what it does.  I can’t control it, I don’t want to control it. If it’s beautiful, then, look what happened?  If it’s ugly, then, eew, look what happened.

I love this technique and invite you to try it sometime.  No pressure.  Just art.