If you want to decorate your home or office but have a limited budget, or need to jazz your place up when selling your home, then creating your own artwork for under $10, and in under 1 hour is the best way to do it. You dont need to be an artist to create a work of art, all you need is to follow the steps below and your home or office will have a decorator look in no time.

What you need

1. A range of different colour acrylic paint tubes, plus one white or black paint.
2. A plastic bowl for mixing paint.
3. A packet of foam brushes in various widths.
4. A paint splash sheet or old newspapers.
5. A water container to wet your foam brushes.
6. A stick from the garden or blunt pointed object like a chop stick.

TIP - If you dont already have acrylic paint and foam brushes, you can get these from any $2 bargain stores (AU - Crazy Clarks, The Warehouse, etc), or online art supply estores. Your initial outlay for (4) medium tubes of paint and a packet of foam brushes will be around $10. This should be enough to make 3 4 artworks as specified below.

Once you have your paint and brushes, all you need is your framed canvas which you can also get from a $2 bargain store. They vary in price and size but, to keep your project under $10, you can buy a 40 x 40cm (16 x 16) framed canvas for around $8.00.

Lets Paint

1. Lay your canvas out onto your splash sheet or newspaper.
2. Squeeze out about 30mls (1 fluid Ounce) of one paint colour into your mixing bowl, wet a large foam brush with water and blend it in with paint. The more watery it is the easier it is to spread the paint onto the canvas, however, dont make it too watery if you want vibrant colours or textured strokes).
3. Visually or lightly with a pencil, divide the canvas roughly into three sections horizontally.
4. Apply the paint to the bottom third of the canvas in long wide strokes, remembering to paint along the sides of this section also. You can make the paint smooth or textured depending on what you like. Squeeze out more paint as necessary.
5. Wash out the bowl and brush or get another one and use a new colour repeating step (2).
6. Using the technique in step (4), paint the middle section of your divided canvas making sure to overlap the previous colour with the new one.
7. Repeat with another colour for the final section at the top of the canvas.
8. Rinse your bowl and brush again and squeeze out 30mls of white or black paint into the bowl. Add as much water as needed to make a consistency of custard.
9. Now comes the fun part Dip your brush into the paint and begin flicking and or dripping paint onto the canvas randomly in one or more sections. Stop when you get an effect you find pleasing to look at.
10. The following step is optional Take your garden stick or chop stick, and randomly move it through the paint blobs in straight or swirling movements around the canvas. Do not do this to all blobs, just select a few at random.
11. Now its finished, allow it to dry and its ready to hang (acrylic paint dries quickly, but how fast will depend on the room temperature and how thick your paint is).

Variations on this style are endless, for example

• Divide the canvas sections vertically, diagonally, or in four squares.
• Choose one colour that will compliment your dcor, and for each section mix black or white to it to alter the shade.
• Instead of paint splashes you could just paint circles, spirals, random shapes, handprints, or nothing at all.
• Use your imagination and do what feels right or whatever comes to mind.

Remember that what one person classifies as art, another may not understand.
Art is in the eye of the beholder and its different for everyone.
If its art to you, then it is an artwork!