Garden art panel

Mark Rayner shows you how to enjoy spring bulbs all year round with this simple-to-paint garden art panel featuring a mass of bright tulips.

You will need: 22mm treated plywood measuring 430mm x 600mm, clean cloth, low-tack masking tape, saw, sandpaper, paintbrushes (including an artist’s brush), pencil, tape measure, ruler. Resene Quick Dry, Resene Lumbersider, tinted to Resene Impromptu. Resene testpots of Resene Bullseye, Resene Glamour Puss, Resene Kaitoke Green, Resene Kereru, Resene Material Girl, Resene Rapture and Resene Sentimental.

To get the look: Mark painted the background shed door with Resene Lumbersider tinted to Resene Alabaster.

Tips for displaying your artwork: To hang the panel, it can be nailed or screwed directly to a wooden fence using galvanised nails or stainless steel screws with the heads filled and spot-painted with the appropriate colour can be used. Alternatively, fix two stainless steel screw eyes to the back of the panel with a length of thin galvanised wire between – the panel can then be hung like a picture from a hook or nail.

Step 1
Measure, mark and cut the plywood to the dimensions listed above.

Step 2
Smooth any rough edges with sandpaper and wipe off any sanding dust with a clean cloth.

Step 3
Apply one coat of Resene Quick Dry to the front, back and sides of the panel, allowing two hours to dry.

Step 4
Apply two coats of Resene Impromptu to the front and back of the plywood panel, allowing two hours for each coat to dry.

Step 5
Using an artist’s brush, paint a few tulip-shaped blooms using Resene Sentimental. Try to keep the paint strokes light and “fluffy” by painting quite quickly.

Step 6
In the same way, paint a few tulip blooms using Resene Glamour Puss.

Step 7
Paint some more tulip blooms using Resene Material Girl.

Step 8
Paint a few more tulip blooms using Resene Rapture.

Step 9
Finally, paint the last few remaining tulip blooms with Resene Bullseye. Allow two hours for all the painted tulips to dry.

Step 10
Paint in stems and leaves using Resene Kereru – again, try to keep the paint strokes light and with“energy”by painting quickly, and don’t worry if they don’t match up perfectly with the flower heads. Paint a few more tulip blooms using Resene Rapture.

Step 11
Mask off a 10mm border around the edge of the panel with low-tack masking tape. 9. Finally, paint the last few remaining tulip blooms with Resene Bullseye. Allow two hours for all the painted tulips to dry.

Step 12
Apply two coats of Resene Kaitoke Green to the masked-off area and the edge of the panel. Allow two hours for the first coat to dry and then remove the masking tape before the second coat has dried. Allow two hours to dry.

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Resene Paints Ltd – www.resene.com