What are Some Easy Things to Paint on a Canvas?

There are so many objects that you can draw inspiration from. For example, the sky, flowers, birds, buildings, animals, and many more. The beauty of nature and our surroundings is a big inspiration for art as art is a representation of nature and the human soul. If you feel like you’re running out of inspiration or if you feel like your creative juices have stopped flowing, this article will provide you with different ideas of easy things to paint on a canvas.

Despite the plethora of things that can inspire us, there are seldom instances where we run out of inspiration, we often call this an artist’s block. We have talked about this matter in several articles before but to give a short recall, an artist’s block or a creative block is common among artists and creatives. It is a moment when you cannot draw inspiration from anything which leads to unproductivity. Not to worry, this is normal because this may be a sign of stress. In such times, you can use it as an opportunity to take a rest, pause, reflect, walk around with nature, and meditate. Once you feel restored, you can start creating artworks once again.

A photo of a woman in white painting a flower on a white paper on a brown table

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Daily Dose of Challenge: Inspire Yourself

Before we give you a handful of ideas on easy things to paint on a canvas, let’s go through a little bit of an ice breaker that will help in giving you plenty of inspiration as well as restore your creative juices.

Many artists reveal that whenever they run out of ideas to paint, they often go outside and bring a piece of paper (or a small artist’s notebook) and a pen with them wherever they go. Some artists sketch while they commute in public transportation, looking at their windows or the people around them. Some go to the park and sketch whatever’s in front of them while some take on a trip to a place where they can reconnect with nature, bringing their easel, canvas, and other art supplies along with them.

So here’s the challenge for you: try doing the same thing. Bring a piece or two of paper, a small notebook that will be better, and sketch outside. The sketch doesn’t have to be perfect, it only teaches you to be inspired so that when you go back inside your room or studio again, at least you have a preliminary sketch or blueprint on what to paint.

You’re not only improving your creativity while getting inspired because by doing this, but you’re also improving a skill necessary for artists which is sketching. 

A photo of a man writing on a paper


What are Some Easy Things to Paint on a Canvas?

    1.  Still life of fruits:

Sill life is one of the most common and important principal genres of the Western art world. Commonly, still, lives are paintings of inanimate objects such as fruits, wine, bottles, baskets of flowers, and many more. Many people think that painting these is hard, however, with the right practice and objects in front of you, all will be well. The key to a great still-life painting is to have the actual objects in front of you while painting. That way, it can serve as a model and you could really study the lighting, values, hues, etc. of your background. 

An art picture still life painting of fruits and glass bottles

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    2.  Dream catcher:

In Native American culture, these are hung near the window or bedpost as a form of protection from bad dreams and to help you welcome good ones instead. Dream catchers are a pretty good display somewhere in your room but have you tried painting one? Surely, by painting one, your room will look like a bohemian wonderland, perfect as a room decoration.

An illustration painting of brown haired woman in a blue dress


    3.  Ocean waves:

Serene. Calm. Quiet. That’s how most of us describe how the ocean feels. If you wanna take yourself on a trip to the ocean when you have no time, try to reminisce about your favorite moments with the ocean and paint the waves that you’ve seen. It doesn’t have to be an accurate depiction, it can even be abstract if you prefer. Thus, working with ocean waves couldn’t be any simpler because you only have to work with a few colors. Also, it’s a great way to practice your brushwork and blending skills too, which is truly one of the easy things to paint on a canvas for beginners.

A blue colored abstract painting

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    4.  Galaxy-inspired Paint Pouring:

Who doesn’t love acrylic paint pouring? It’s a great, easy, and fun way to make your room extra sophisticated. The simplicity of the painting process with the unpredictability of the painting’s final outcome is one of the things that make this art interesting. Not to mention the thousands of color combinations that you can create, as well as the different styles that you can employ with this technique. One of the most popular color combinations for this technique is galaxy-inspired colors, which are often violet, black, white, blue, and yellow.

Don’t forget to put gold flakes once the painting is thoroughly dried so that it would look sparkly like the galaxy!

An orange multi colored abstract painting


    5.  Field of flowers:

Let your personality and artistic capabilities bloom by painting your favorite flowers in different shapes, colors, and sizes. Florals have been a common yet very interesting subject for painting– it never ceases to amaze people because of the simplicity and elegance that it brings to a wall. Thus, you can employ different techniques while painting this subject to add depth and texture, such as painting it impasto style or with palette knives.

A photo of a rose flowers painter paint

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Give Yourself (or Your Loved Ones) the Gift of Painting

The list of easy things to paint on the canvas above will surely help you improve your painting skills while contributing an additional aesthetic to your wall once you’re ready to display your finished painting.

If you want to improve your artistic skills even further, you can use paint by numbers kits. Apart from the multitude of design selections to choose from, it also gives you the freedom to choose your own photo that will be turned into a customized canvas that you can paint and enjoy. These kits will help you learn the basic foundation of painting such as color theory, blending, brushwork, and the “number technique” where you assign particular colors to a specific number on the canvas to help you easily remember your hues.

To know more about paint by numbers kits, click here.

Final Insights

We hope that these different easy things to paint on canvas ideas boost your creativity enough to help you start a new artwork. Remember to challenge yourself, inspire yourself, look around you, reconnect with nature, reflect, and meditate to keep your creative juices flowing.

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