What to paint on a canvas: Nature-inspired abstract painting idea

One of the questions that can come up pretty quickly when you have a blank canvas in front of you is also the most obvious: What am I going to paint?

There are endless canvas painting ideas out there, but we don't think inspiration always has to mean finding an artwork you like and trying to recreate it. Sometimes it's much more interesting to change the way you're creating altogether.

That's something we want to explore a lot more at Plan.

Our art kits give you the materials and the starting point. We want to find new ways to use them, experiment with them and keep giving you ideas that make starting your own artwork feel even easier.

And for this one, we took a canvas outside.

 

A canvas painting idea inspired by nature

Rather than deciding on an artwork first, we started with the surroundings. We took one of our blank canvases outside alongside our Forest Red acrylic paint palette: a mix of colours that already felt at home among the greens, earthy reds and natural tones around us.

Then we went looking for our painting tools. No brushes this time, just whatever we could find. Leaves, twigs, flowers that would soon create different shapes and different textures.

 

Painting with leaves, twigs and flowers

We dipped each natural material directly into acrylic paint and started pressing, dragging and moving it across the canvas.

A leaf might leave the suggestion of its shape, but only in certain places. A flower could create a cluster of tiny marks. A twig could become a line, a scrape or something much rougher depending on how it hit the surface.

Instead of trying to control every detail, we worked with whatever happened. Some marks were subtle, some were much stronger than expected. Some overlapped, and some made us change what we wanted to do next.

And that unpredictability was the best part of the whole thing.

 

Every mark was intentional, the result wasn't predictable

You are still making decisions as you go. Which colour to use, where to place something, whether the artwork needs another mark or whether it's time to leave an area alone.

But you're giving up a little bit of control over exactly what that mark will look like. And when you don't know exactly what a leaf covered in paint is going to do when you press it against a canvas, it's pretty difficult to obsess over creating the perfect brushstroke.

There isn't one. You make a mark, see what happens and respond to it. For us, it made the whole painting process feel much more instinctive and freeing. You can see the whole process here:

An easy abstract painting idea if you tend to overthink

If you've been searching for easy canvas painting ideas or abstract painting ideas for beginners, this is a really good one to experiment with because there's very little to copy or get “right”.

You're essentially creating through mark-making, colour, texture and composition rather than trying to paint a recognisable subject.

And you don't need to make ours. You're always free to, but you can also go somewhere completely different. Find different plants, pick a palette based on the colours you see around you. Use one type of leaf repeatedly, or try grass. Make tiny delicate marks or cover the entire canvas.

The idea isn't a set of instructions for one particular painting. It's a starting point, and an amazingly freeing one at that.

 

Look beyond the paintbrush

A Plan kit comes with brushes and a palette knife, but they're only some of the things you can create with. Once you stop thinking of painting as something that has to happen in one particular way, there's a lot more to explore.

You could make marks with natural materials like we did here, use masking tape to build sharp geometric forms, apply paint with pieces of card, experiment with fabric, create texture with a palette knife or find completely different objects around your home.

Even the place you choose to paint can change the direction of the artwork.

Take your canvas outside, look at the colours in your room. Start from the material of a favourite chair, a photograph, a landscape, an outfit, a building or something you've seen on a walk.

Inspiration doesn't have to end with what should I paint? Sometimes a better question is: how can I make a mark? And see where that takes you.

 

Make it your own

The thing we want most from Plan is for more people to feel confident enough to create something themselves.

Not to follow one exact painting from A to B, unless you want to. We just don't want you to feel like you have to be an artist before you're allowed to start.

We want to give you a really good canvas, materials, the tools to get going and enough guidance to make the process approachable. Then leave room for you to take it somewhere only you could.

Because your kit can become a completely different artwork depending on who opens it. And we think that's magic.

 

Ready to try it?

Take your Plan kit somewhere different, forget the paintbrush for a minute and see what else you can create with.

We used the Forest Red palette for our nature-inspired piece, but we think Olive would look amazing with this idea as well. And if greens are not your thing, we have other options too.

If you make your own version, please do send us photos. We'd love to see your masterpiece.

 

Emmi
Co-founder of Plan