Circle of Life Canvas

My daughter in law has asked me to create a canvas for their home years ago and for some reason I just never got around to it. Well she doesn’t have to wait any more.

Here’s the final piece:

And this is how I created it:

I started with adding a variety of marked/inked and random junk papers. I adhered them using Mod Podge on the 16x20 canvas.

Added words in pencil and then put white gesso over everything to tone down the variety of colors & markings.

Once dried, I spritzed ink sprays all over. I'll be honest, I instantly regretted it but continued since I didn't want a huge puddle of teal spray on the canvas.

The nice thing about creating a mixed media canvas is if you don't like something, you just need to cover it! I was going to put another coat of gesso but decided to go for it with the acrylic paints. I started in the middle with white and continued adding different color acrylic paints building on the circle.

Then stamped a variety of words all over the canvas. Once the ink dried, I added different colors of paint to blend the words in and to add highlights around the circle rings.

I love the final project! It can be hung any way and any direction!

I also added black & white splashes and some black markings in the four corners.

To me a canvas is not complete without painting the edges too. I did something different on this one. I used a black ink pen to write the lyrics to the Circle of Life song from The Lion King and a quote on the circle of life. Which is perfect since I named this canvas, The Circle of Life.

I hope they like it!