A few months ago a good friend of mine, Brian Brown, asked for a favor. He had an old canvas floorcloth that he wanted to paint over and use inside his tent when he did art shows. Brian knew I some experience with acrylic pouring and asked if I would help him with the project. I was happy to oblige and one Friday afternoon we went to work creating a six foot by nine foot pour.
As I mention at the start of the video, this video is less of a “How To” and more of a “What You Can Expect” if you take on a project like this. If you want to start from scratch you can Google “Making Canvas Rugs.” This search will give you several good articles that take you step-by-step through the entire process from buying the canvas at the DIY store to sealing the final product. I found two that can be viewed here and here.
Brian already had his floorcloth (sometimes referred to as canvas rug) ready to go so all we had to do was turn it into a piece of pour art. Brian had a nice, flat driveway so we decided to work there. We prepped the area by putting down a large plastic drop cloth. A word of advice… place something like a 1”x4” under each edge of the drop cloth to act as a dam to hold in any paint that might run off the canvas rug as you are pouring. These boards will let the drop cloth act like a little swimming pool catching the paint before it flows where you don’t want it to go. Another bit of advice is to have a second set of hands to help you as you try to lift and tilt the rug. The canvas rug gets really heavy and hard to tilt when it’s covered with a few gallons of paint.
The video will show how we mixed the paint and did the pour. It was messy but fun. Brian taped off the edges which gave the floorcloth a nice finished look. The floorcloth had to dry for well over a week. Keep that in mind if you decide to take on this project. Your floorcloth my get to take over the garage and you’ll have to park on the driveway. The final step was to seal the entire thing with two to three coats of clear polyurethane. The end result was beautiful and the floorcloth looks great in Brian’s tent. As artists it is nice to get paid for our talents but sometimes it’s okay to share our pouring skills without compensation–especially when it helps a friend.
Steve Shaw is an artist and teacher living in Atlanta, Georgia. His days are spent in the classroom teaching his students the basics of art and self-expression. In the evenings and weekends, he paints. Steve has shown his work in several galleries in the Southeast and has illustrated three children’s books. Recently Steve has discovered acrylic pour painting and is putting all his other projects on hold while he journeys down this artistic road.
To see more, follow him on Instagram, visit his website, watch his videos on his YouTube Channel and purchase his paintings at Etsy.com.
This was amazing! Gave me a fantastic idea for doing something similar (though not as large) for my front porch.
I have a question though: it seems I just can’t get away from my pours cracking after they have dried. Mostly that’s true when I use canvas, but I made some tile coasters at Christmas and they did the same. Have you ever experienced this? Any tips you can give would be appreciated!
No! Never use polyurethane on acrylic paint! Use polyCRYLIC. I hope that sealant doesn’t ruin all that work and paint.
Hey Steve, thanks for the video. I’m wondering if the floor cloth is now able to be rolled up for transport. Is it crazy heavy?