Thanksgiving decor has a short shelf life. Two weeks of gourds on the mantel, then it all goes back in the box. A canvas painted in early November is the exception, because autumn colour stays on a wall until the light changes in March.
Six autumn canvases we actually carry
- Pumpkin Patch at Dusk. Orange against a dark blue field. The highest contrast canvas in the group and the one that photographs best when it is finished.
- Harvest Wreath. Wheat, berries and dried leaves in a circle. Slow going, because a wreath is nothing but small regions, but there is no perspective and no shading to get wrong.
- Old Truck with Pumpkins. The one people recognise from every seasonal storefront. Half the work of the wreath.
- Autumn Red Barn. Barn red, gold field, turning trees, all in large flat masses. Suits a first time painter.
- Golden Retriever in Autumn Leaves. Fur and leaves share a palette here, which is what makes it work and what makes it hard. Go for 48 colours.
- Black Cat Among Pumpkins. Reads Halloween in October and harvest in November, which is the only canvas here that covers both.
Five of the six sit in Landscapes. There is more on the wider autumn palette in our piece on autumn leaves and harvest scenes.
Starting late
If it is already the second week of November, a custom kit is not going to arrive in time. Printing runs one to three business days, transit seven to fifteen. For an in stock canvas, order by the first of the month and it lands with a week to spare.
Plenty of people paint after the holiday rather than before it, and the argument for that is better than it sounds. The canvas goes up for next year, and you were not trying to paint while a turkey was in the oven.
The version done at the table
The house is full on the day, and about half the people in it are waiting for something to do. A canvas on the dining table after the plates clear absorbs four adults for two hours with no setup at all. We wrote out how to split one canvas between several painters without the sections clashing in the guide to painting together.
What a photograph gets you
A table already set, the house from the driveway with the trees turned, last year's group on the porch. Any of those goes through the custom kit page and comes back as a numbered canvas with the paints mixed to the photo. From $19.95 at 12x12 inches, $29.95 at 20x26.
Canvas, numbered acrylics, three brushes and a reference print in every kit. Free shipping to the US, Canada, the UK, the EU, Australia and New Zealand. Thirty days to return for a full refund, prepaid label included.
