The Craftiest Workshop

The last few times we have had a fire at our fire pit, I have been sitting in a folding camping chair. I am finding that having the sagging seat puts pressure on my lower back. I asked my husband if he would make me a more upright chair out of wood.

He made the chair, leaving the back panels off, and had me sit in it. He decided to burn it with his propane torch. The next idea he had in his head was to paint something on the back panels and…why not try spray paint.

This lead to a number of paintings done on pieces of Bristol board that were cut in four. What followed were some shopping trips for more spray paint colours and more Bristol board.

Here are the first paintings he did. The two on the right he tried doing them on watercolour paper and that didn’t work as well.

When our kids were growing up, we always bought things in red, green and blue to help identify who belonged to which cup, plate, toy etc.

He decided to do three planets next in red, green and blue.

This is my favourite planet so far.

And now I have planets hanging in the powder room.

His next foray was into making eyes.

He started adding texture to the outside of the eyes o make them look like dragon eyes.

This one is my favourite.

Next he tried a landscape with mountains.

He was finally ready to paint on my chair.

Of course he also had to make himself a chair.

It is quite interesting how these paintings are done. He uses pot lids and plastic covers to create the planets. Crinkled newspaper and plastic wrap is used to remove layers of paint to bring out colours underneath. The high gloss paint makes the finished product appear like a photograph.

There are a few other paintings he has done and he just keeps getting better. It is interesting for me to see how engaged he is in this type of art and that he seems to be constantly itching to get back in the garage and try a new technique or scene.

I smile to myself when I realize that this new hobby all stemmed from me asking him to make me a chair.