A Real Rembrant

Once we got our own place I was ready to start a storm of DIY decorating. I'd been preparing for this moment since I moved to Israel, mostly via Pinterest. There aren't any big craft stores like Michaels or AC Moore here, so it took some extensive Google research to figure out where to buy supplies (Aqvarel- Ra'anana , Mai Art - Tel Aviv). There's also a store called Max that has really cheap everything, including low-quality canvases if, like me, you're not a serious artist and just decorating for fun.

For my first project I used two narrow canvases to do a nature-y stencil:

First I painted the canvases mauve (that's sort of a muted pinkish purple for people without crayola crayons).

Once that was dry (probably about 20 min) I went on a leaf hunt (which threw Tair for a loop). One set of leaves and flowers I found near my apartment building; the other I actually pulled from a bush in Tel Aviv and carried it back with me on the bus, getting quite a few strange looks.

This project would probably have been much simpler with spray paint but I didn't have any so I stenciled with more acrylic. I laid each leaf on the painted canvas and painted gently around the edges. I found that flat leaves work best because the Tel Aviv leaves were very wavy and took quite a bit of free-handing to get any real shape onto the canvas.


Once I stenciled the leaves I carefully peeled them back to reveal my lovely nature-prints.

Between projects I also discovered Arta which has branches all over the country, although to be more accurate I actually discoverd the Arta warehouse.  As it turns out the "branch" in Rison LeZion isn't actually a store anymore. However, if you're living in Rishon and need some art supplies they'll still sell things to you. The guy who helped me there was very nice and probably more knowledgeable about the products than most of the people in the stores. Who doesn't want a mini-tour of a giant art supplies warehouse anyway?

After that slight adventure I was ready to start on my next project - a giant canvas for the livingroom:

The background is a combination of Mauve and dark blue wash

I cut circles out of a bath sponge for the leaves

The blue bird is Tair, the pink one is me... we're weird

And yes, I spelled "weirdness" wrong...

Luckily most people in Israel can't read English cursive ;)