Abstract Landscape 🎨

abstract May 07, 2025

Today, we’re diving into an easy and fun abstract art project that’s all about layers, texture, and trusting the process. We are working with an 11x14 canvas to create a layered abstract art piece with lots of beautiful, earthy tones. You don’t need a perfect plan - just grab your colors, a brush, and a palette knife, and let’s play!

Step 1: Choose Your Colors

Pick a set of warm, earthy tones or whatever colors speak to you. In this tutorial, I used a mix of white, Oyster Beige, Grey Storm, greeny blues (like Thicket and Midnight Garden), and a few soft greens. Keep some white handy to help mute or blend your colors as you go.

Step 2: Break the Blank Canvas

Start by wetting your brush and loosely brushing on your background colors. Don’t overthink it! The goal here is to cover the white canvas with broad, imperfect patches of color - let some of the underpainting peek through. You can mix a little white into stronger colors to tone them down and keep things soft.

Remember, this doesn’t need to look like anything yet. You’re just creating a colorful “base coat” to build on. Dry with a heat tool.

Step 3: Enter the Palette Knife

Once your base is dry, grab your palette knife. Load it with a bit of paint and lightly “butter” it across the canvas (think soft toast, not rough scraping!) Layer in grays, beiges, blues, or greens, dragging the paint across the surface for a textured, layered look.

Want to create movement or mimic a landscape feel? Add in streaks of green to suggest a tree line or blue-gray for a moody sky. Keep it loose and organic!

Step 4: Layer, Blend, Adjust

This is where the magic happens. Keep adding layers of paint with your palette knife, mixing colors right on the canvas. Don’t stress if it looks messy - abstract art is all about trusting the process.

If something feels “off,” let it dry and come back later to adjust. You can cover areas you don’t love or add new shades to liven things up.

Step 5: Add Texture with Glass & Resin

Add Starfire and Solex glass across the bottom of your canvas. You don’t need a straight line - let the glass scatter naturally for an organic look.

Next, we're going to elevate our canvas using blocks. Put on rubber gloves. Mix 2 oz total of ArtResin and stir gently for three minutes. Pour the resin onto your canvas and use your gloved fingers or brush to spread it over the entire piece.

Use a heat gun to pop your bubbles. Keep your heat moving at all times!

If you don’t want to miss my Facebook LIVE art instruction, make sure you are on my texting list. I always text 10 minutes before I’m going to go LIVE, so you won’t ever miss it. You can text “Hey Cindy” to 901-519-2923.

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