Believe it or not (I cannot!) that this large gallery painting is hanging in a gallery in San Diego with a price tag on it of $22,000! My jaw dropped...even the curator couldn't explain it. I was thinking to myself "I have paintings at home just like that!" painted on the same size canvas. So the moral of the story is; if they (artists) can do it, so can you and I!

Simply put...color and stripes...that's it! Here is what you need: (If you want to practice first you can purchase and old canvas for a couple of dollars at any 2nd hand store or you may have an old canvas hanging around that you can use)

• A large canvas i.e.3'x4' or 4'x4' or 4'x5' (I generally use the latter size)
• Sponge roller about 4" in length with a handle
• A flat tipped paint brush about 2" wide...foam is ok for this purpose though you may need a couple of them as they wear out quickly
  
• Acrylic paints in your colors (drawn from a pillow, rug, general color scheme)
• Old rags or paper towels
• Paper plates for your paint
  
• A small bowl of water
• Large table like a picnic table to lay your canvas on
• Your favorite music playing (internal inspiration)

1. First decide if your color scheme is going to be warm or cool. If warm you will want to use a mustard or golden yellow paint as a base color. If cool you can use a blue or green.
2. Squeeze about half your tube of paint onto the paper plate and sprinkle a little water on it and smooth the paint.
3. Using your sponge roller, apply the paint by rolling it all over the canvas in a messy way...leaving lines and clumps etc. (This technique adds texture to the next layer of paint)
4. Let this layer of paint dry completely. (You will be pulling paint off and you do not want to pull all the color off if you rub too hard)
5. Now everyone knows how to make stripes, right? So go ahead...take a fresh paper plate, a paint color, and your 2" brush and slop some paint at the bottom or top of your canvas and stroke your brush from left to right including the sides of the canvas. (You want the sides that are visible to be a continuation of the front of the painting.
6. When you have a stripe the size you want then wait a few minutes, take your paper towel or rag and wipe gently from side to side to pull some of the paint up. See if you like it. If you do then move on to your next color. The space where 2 colors meet should be blurred or blended with your rag or brush as well.
7. Continue with your stripes until you have filled the canvas with 3, 5, 7, stripes. Stand back.
   
8. Look at it and keep playing with it until you love it. Add stripes in different sizes, add a stripe between the major stripes, or what ever you want to do. If you hate it, you can paint it again and again. The more you paint a canvas, the more interesting the texture. You can even take one color and brush it over another color and then pull off or blend the paint for different effects.

That is it. Don't varnish your masterpiece because you may want to change the paint colors depending on where you hang it.