Happy hump day friends!

Recently I have been focusing some of my time doing up Cooper’s Nursery. He’s now 10 months old and up until about three weeks ago the poor little guy had zero decorations in his room. I blame this all on our international move. I’ve now finally started to get my act together. I’ve decided to go with a nautical/ocean theme. To be honest with you it’s actually not a theme that ever really caught my eye but living about 1.5 hours away from the beach as opposed to 10 minutes like we did back in Australia is making me really miss the ocean. The boys love the beach and so I thought it would be a nice theme for his room. All round I’m really loving the coastal look and feel.

I wanted to create a painting that resembled the ocean but nothing to realistic. The mix of colours was the most important aspect. I searched the web for inspiration and found a few images of the ocean that I liked and used them as references for my painting.

This painting is going to go on a chest of draws in his room so it will be a focal point.

I chose vibrant colours yet still trying to keep it soft by mixing white through it. Coopers room isn’t going to be overly bright so this will certainly add some fun into the mix alongside some other key pieces I’ve chosen.

To recreate this DIY Abstract Ocean Painting you will need:

Acrylic Paints in desired colours- I used blue, turquoise, white, tan, peach, light green and yellow

Acrylic Paint Brushes in assorted widths

Thin Canvas- I used a 40 x 50cm canvas that was already pre-primed

A large bowl filled with clean water to clean your brushes

Paper Towel- to wipe excess paint

Old cloth or newspaper- for under your canvas

A reference photo of an ocean scene or you can use my painting as your reference image

Now lets get to the good part and paint this bad boy!

Step 1

If you’re canvas is not primed or you are painting over an existing painting then paint over it with white paint making sure to cover the whole surface. Let it dry for a few hours or until you are sure it is very dry.

Step 2

Grab your chosen colours and roughly dot them onto the canvas. Look at your reference photo or this tutorial and work you way up the canvas adding each new colour until you reach the top. I dotted white all over the canvas as I wanted to soften my colours and then added the vibrant colours gradually building it from the sand, to the sea foam, the ocean water, an island in the horizon and up to the sky.

Step 3

Once you have dotted your whole canvas it’s time to get painting! On a separate piece of paper dot some colours and have a quick practice run of your brush strokes. I did a curvy X type of stroke to get the effect I wanted. I also used assorted brushes and thicknesses for this painting. Use your water and paper towel to clean your brushes in between each line of colours particularly if you only have a couple of brushes to work with.

Step 4

As you work your way up the canvas make sure no to worry about blending the colours too much and keep your strokes rough. Make sure your brushes are as dry as possible as you work with them to give your painting texture. You can come back and add more white or colour to certain areas once you have finished blending all the paints on your canvas. I wanted more white as I felt it needed to be even softer so I went back and added it to the spots I felt needed to be reworked. I’m happy I went back and did this. I felt the shades are more appropriate.



Want to pin this project for later? Add the image below to your Projects/DIY Pinterest board for future reference!

So there you have it! How easy is that! Art doesn’t have to be hard and certainly not perfect. But it can be lots of fun and make your home so much more beautiful with a few key pieces created by your own hands. I can’t wait to put this in Coopers nursery. Right now I’m searching for the perfect cupboard for his room so now this painting is sitting on my fireplace mantle reminding me of how much I love the ocean.

What have you made lately? Do you think you could easily master this simple art piece?