With A Little Help From Your Friends You, Too, Can Create A Masterpiece!
I just love a rollicking good, vintage Paint By Numbers painting. So corny, so kitsch. So utterly ridiculous, really. And, the whole unrelenting concept, "paint by the numbers!", feeds perfectly into my tendencies towards OCD.
I picked up a fun kit from Chronicle Books the other day and took it along to our monthly STITCH gathering (you don't have to just stitch - you just have to make art). As I opened my shiny new box, I was surprised and thrilled (thrilled, I tell you!) to find, not only did it contain the piece 'd resistance that I'd bought the kit for - the Tour d' Eiffel - no folks, it contained seven additional canvases! A clown, you say? Yes a clown! A twirling ballerina, a sturdy little tug boat, and a classic fall scene. Not to mention a rocket ship to the moon, some perky California poppies and our lady of the Hudson - the Statue of Liberty. This was some Paint By Numbers kit!
So, as I carefully took a glass of wine to my lips and the wee brush to my little Eiffel (and I mean little - I could barely see the numbers they were so tiny), there was murmur of gentle mocking around the room full of real artists. There were real painters there! One thing lead to another and the next thing I knew, I had Annie Galvin creating one of her lovely bears to add to the Parisian scene, and Leigh Wells (STITCH founder and hostess extraordinaire) painting delicate and delicious swirls of red paint across the canvas! It was fantastic - I couldn't love it more, and although I have been instructed by the artistes to fill in the rest, I am quite tempted to leave it be. It's just that cool, no? Thanks you talented girls, you!
Oh, and to clarify, I painted those amazing little clouds and turned theEiffel Tower lime green. And, I did that all on my own. I'll bet you couldn't tell, huh?
35 comments:
Oooooh, I'm so jealous!
So cool! I remember doing these as a kid. Walking around afterward like I was the next Monet. I love it just the way it is too.
Hey, super talented girl:)
I'm in love with colors and painting. Esp. oil painting, however it is a dirty art for a woman living in 50 m2. But aha, you lighted my water color inspiration bulb. Thank you, thank you.
Things to do after work:
1- Go to an art shop,buy water colors and a sketch book.
2- Go home and perform arts:)
3- Leave the husband hungry by himself, wow I like that idea:)
By the way, I'm reading you for 5 months and love your style. I'm from Istanbul-Turkiye. My blog is a story and life blog and it is in Turkish. But I also am interested in decorating.
I love the lime green Eiffel Tower. Nice work!
victoria,
i too have this same kit (although, i believe i have different canvases?)- anyway i started painting one and couldn't take more than an hour, i'm so impatient! thus i turned to ebay (cheaters sometimes win! ha!) i love yours with the personalised added flare and a great story to boot!
Terra
Oh, that is so rad!! Honestly, paint-by-numbers seems like a great way for me to unwind at the end of the day. I think I need to add this to my birthday wishlist. :)
Ah, I love it. Nice work on the clouds. You are so working your way toward adding another compulsion to my list. Off to do a quick hunt for paint by numbers. :)
I love this! I would leave it like it is.
I have this kit! But I've been nervous to try since the numbers are so, so small.
This may have inspired me to break it out this weekend.
I've been contemplating getting that kit for over a year now :O
I look forward to your gallery opening! (You are going to paint the rest aren't you?)What is the price for the Eiffel Tower piece? It is fabulous.
ooooh! La la! Me likey.
The finished product looks pretty amazing!
It is definitely cooler if you don't fill in the rest. I think it's awesome and it inspires me to pieces!
So cute! I am a sucker for anything with the Eiffel Tower, and your additions make it perfect.
I LOVE It! the eiffel tower, the clouds, the colors, the negative space (you should definitely leave it as is), the red swirls and of course that little bear!
What a fun project. I've often thought of creating a huge piece of art with a several artists all contributing to that one piece.
oh i love it, just as it is now. nice collaboration! and i love that you brought it along & busted it out. my mother used to keep me occupied with latch hook projects when i was a kid, and i secretly wish there were cool patterns & cool yarns available so i could do it again, at least once, without touching those gross acrylic bits. wouldn't it be groovy if chronicle hired some artists like your talented friends to create paint-by-numbers canvases more like the one yours became! there's enough talent on etsy alone to allow us non-artists a little playtime while hanging out with their coolness and some watercolors.
I say consider it done! It looks lovely and I really like the way the blue lines and numbers add texture.
I have this kit, too! I went through all the canvases painting all the colors I didn't have to blend, then I stopped. The clown is the only one whose colors you don't have to blend at all!
But my goodness, yours is now soooo much better than simply completing it could ever be. Don't keep painting!!!
Love unfinished and embellished paint by numbers. Looks great.
This collaborative effort came out great! I love the colors and the little bear.
I love that! Cool. I have another kit, Real Art!, it has 10 canvases, including two copies, Van Gogh's Sunflowers and the Mona Lisa. I bought it for this great image of a Geisha. I still haven't had the relaxing weekend required to start it but I hope I will before the paint dries out.
Um, you should definitely collaborate with these ladies more often. My vote: C'est fini!
Me thinks you are on to something here...soon everyone in your fair city will HAVE to have paint by numbers parties with only the finest wine and cheese while listening to Etta James.
I LOVE this! LOVE LOVE LOVE it! If I had my way, you'd scan it and make nice quality prints of it for all of your admirers to buy! (hint hint!) But all three collaborators should sign it first! It's so delicious!!!
Love this, what's so funny for me is remembering my mother painting a paint by numbers... I'll have to try it.
I'm with Rebecca. I would love to own a print of this. (I, too, have this kit, btb.)
K
Adorable. The colour combinations are lovely and the composition is perfect as is. Who'd a thunk it!
oh, i absolutely love it!!
It does look good! My little bear looks quite at home "a Rive Gauche"
I think the wine was a fourth collaborator!
love it, that's all i have to say, love it
(you have the best friends!)
I bought this kit for my dad (he collects paint-by-numbers) but he didn't anything as fabulous as this (no offense, Dad)! I would leave it as is and move on to your next masterpiece.
really cool I've never seen a paint by number look so...enviable!
Fantastic! Le cirque de Paris!
I've always somewhat scoffed at these kits as well, but it makes me want to go out and buy one just so I can sabatoge it!
as a fellow san franciscan (sp?) I'd love to hear more about STITCH. Sounds like a lot of fun. I'd love to get to know more creative people in the city.
ooh la la. what a GREAT idea! it looks just perfect how it is. what fun to have an art club.
Post a Comment