Last January, I bought a huge canvas as a gift to myself for completing my Masters degree. Last week, I finally got in the mood to paint! It was finally time to try and recreate one of the paintings I saw in Australia four years ago… the one that I yearned for but was humungous and out of my price range at $4000!

I gathered up my acrylic paints…

Got the canvas set up in the dining room where the light is best…

And started painting. I have done several of these to give away as gifts over the years but on much smaller canvases.

This is the first base coat. I did one more coat after this to soften and blend the colors.

Then I started with the yellow circles… This should look familiar…

When the circles were done and completely dry I filled in the spaces with white dots.

Then painted the border black.

The finished painting:

I hung this huge painting in the back landing. It is a dark area but there is a skylight directly above it which lights it up quite nicely. This is the perfect spot for the painting as it adds a playful and dramatic splash of color to an otherwise neglected area, and it is the first thing you see when you enter through the back door (instead of a bare wall). I love this painting as it grabs my attention every time I walk by and its bright colors cheer me up. The dots and circles remind me of the basic building blocks of the universe (ultimately energy) and that I am connected to all of existence… Simple but profound.