I love art and love to have beautiful paintings to look at and decorate with, however finding something on a budget can be a challenge sometimes.
You guys all know that I love “BIG” paintings, but sometimes you just need something smaller and special for a certain place. Something that will catch your eye and command attention like only an oil painting can do.
I am crazy about all kinds of animal paintings. Since I couldn’t find a painting that I liked at a price I could afford, I did the next best thing. You can find several sites online with free prints that you can just copy. Then there are several companies that will print your picture on canvas. Just google print on canvas and there are dozens of places. I found this really pretty picture of sheep and had it printed out on a 16 x 18 canvas. (This was a few years ago and the company I used no longer exists) My cost was $24. (I did look online and there are several places that will do the same thing for about the same price.) It came rolled up in a tube and was stunning. It looks like a great oil painting with tons of texture and it looks like you could almost feel the brush strokes.
Next I took it to Hobby Lobby to have it framed. I chose a wormy frame with tons of character and of course if you buy their frame, they always frame it for free. They have amazing frames and always run 1/2 off ads, so you can find some great frames at really reasonable prices. I think this one cost me around $20 at 1/2 off. One of the secrets to fooling the eye and making a print look like an oil painting is framing and treating it like one – so pick a really super frame.
These are two more prints that look like oil paintings.
I always look for art at goodwill and thrift stores and I found a piece that I loved at goodwill. I am always drawn to pastoral scenes with animals and I adore sheep, so this just grabbed my heart. With a new frame it looks like a really expensive piece of art.
When you are out and about, keep an eye out for scenes that you love and then check out how it is printed, painted, framed and etc. This is what it looked like at goodwill. The frame is so-so, but the picture looks cheap. This is a picture printed on poster board and has a brush stroke texture, so having it matted and under glass makes it look like a really cheap print. (Notice the price of $3.99 and 25% off for senior day makes it $3. )
I chose an elaborate, antique looking frame from Hobby Lobby that was only $14.99 on sale, (plus they always frame your picture for free.) I had the mat borders removed and no glass, so now the brush stroke texture shows and looks like an oil painting. A great piece of art for a total of $18.
This one was even cheaper. It was a free print I found online then printed out on canvas paper. Same thing, I found a really ornate frame at Hobby Lobby on 1/2 off and they framed it for me for free. They even mounted it to a poster board so it would have some stability. You can see the complete tutorial about free prints and canvas paper here.
If you find a free print that you like, print it out on canvas paper and then treat it like an oil painting and people will think it is. Frame it in a really great frame that you would use for a real oil painting and this makes it even more convincing.
