Old World Vintage Chair Art using Stain

As most of you who follow me know, I do stained artwork on furniture. I'm often asked why I don't do wall hangings. Well, the fact is.. I DO do artwork on other pieces as well. It just seems I don't often have the time to squeeze it in. But I have been obsessing over doing a distressed type of art featuring a vintage piece of furniture. So, while I was waiting for the stain to dry on some of my furniture pieces, I decided to get to it!

I had this composite-type board that I found at Ikea.

I sanded it lightly and used my Wise Owl Limestone and painted one coat.

I then used Wise Owl Smokey Quartz watered down

I played around with different techniques, trying to create an Old World effect without using texture. First I brushed it on and wiped off. Then I did a cross~hatch pattern and then I dragged the brush even more to pull the paint back a little to show the Limestone peeking through. I also did thes same cross~hatch patterns using Wise Owl White Wash Glaze.

I played around with it until I got a look similar to what I was envisioning.

Now it was time for the artwork.

I found several pictures of ornate Victorian furniture that I could use but finally decided on a majestic chair.

As you probably know, I use an oil-based stain for all of my artwork.

Once I got to this point, I was very happy with it, but knew it needed some shadowing to give it more life ~ to make it pop of the wall even more. This part always causes me stress... always afraid I will ruin the artwork or someone may not like it, etc.

Once I got the shadowing done, I added some more stain around the edges of the "canvas" to give it a more aged effect. This could also be done with black wax.

I sealed it all with Polyvine Matte Wax Varnish - a superb, durable sealer. And now she is ready to find a home!