Summer Mantel With DIY - Ocean Painting

I've been in decor mode all this week, in preparation for the Summer home tour next week and I decided to go for a new mantel display with an ocean inspired painting as the main focus.

It's been a while since my last mantel display. I used to decorate and change my mantel with every season, but lately I've been busy with other more important projects. ;)

Anyways, I opted for painting an ocean scene for two reasons: first, I thought that
painting and mixing a few shades of blue to mimic the ocean was easy and secondly, I wanted to use blue colors (Im crazy in love with blue this season). Another good reason was that I already had a canvas... Well, a board I created long time ago out of plywood.

Was it easy? Yes, I think so. However I made many mistakes. Practice would definitely ensure better results. Let me show you how it went for me, so you can also give it a try!

This is how the plywood board looked. It already had this texture that I gave it a long time ago. You can see HERE the previous art piece where I used this board.

I gave the board two coats of white paint before starting the ocean scene.

White acrylic paint, two shades of blue and a little bit of mustard, gold-ish color was also used.

The first step was to create a horizontal line with the darkest blue, a little higher than the center of the board.
You can continue reading below, or you can check the entire process in the following video:

Mix the colors right there in the plate or palette and continue painting horizontal strokes in a little wavy manner, going from dark to light.

Dab the paint brush in water to mix the colors way more easier.

Add some touches of the gold color here and there, mixing them with the blues. Continue all the way to the bottom of the board.

It's now the time to finish the top part. Mix white with a tiny bit of blue and start painting along that dark line.

Continue painting all the way to the top, adding bits of blue here and there.

I then went adding more white detail, first dabbing the paint brush in a paper towel to remove the excess paint, then dabbing the paint brush wherever I wanted more detail.

This is how it looked as soon as I finished painting it.  Not too bad, but I could've blended better. I disliked those two big patches at the bottom, the blue and the gold.  And I tried to fix them, there, after I hang it on the wall. Adding a good amount of water to the paint brush...

Oh oh,  I think I added too much water! 😮  A little dabbing with a paper towel helped a lot. And I didn't bother fixing or adding more paint for fear of making it worse! :D

I left it just like that. I'll rather start over with a white canvas. But, that's gonna be later on.
I brought that small art piece that I bought not long ago and to my surprise, it matches my new creation very well.

 A wider view here.

Well guys, as you can see, it's far from perfect, but hey, it works for me. Most importantly, I'm happy with it.

Dont' let fear stop you from trying something, specially if it's paint. You can paint it again and again!



For more home decor ideas check these out:

Coastal Tablescape

Patriotic Bedroom

Update A Rusty Patio Set

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