Linh{ART} Gallery

I feel like I have been working on doing something special in our hallway forever.  It's not even really a hallway.  It's this little space where we have two steps down to the two smaller bedrooms.  I painted the walls chocolate brown knowing that eventually I wanted to fill the walls with artwork.  So for the past year I've been collecting picture frames from thrift stores and yard sales.  I painted all the frames white for a cohesive look and then started filling them up with all kinds of artwork.  There is art made my children, myself, and my husband.  And there is also some artwork that we just like from various artists.  I've also included some of our letter L (for Linhart) collection.  I'm hoping to just keep adding frames in a really close-knit configuration as our family keeps making and collecting art.

What I'm about to show you is only a small part of our art collection.  I have enough frames to make a display this size on the opposite wall (which I plan to do) and then some.  I'm sure this space will never be "finished" so I thought I'd show it to you as it evolves.

 For now we've filled up this much space.  And I basically made swiss cheese out of our walls by nailing and re-nailing as I tweaked where the frames would go.  I did make paper templates like this method but once the actual pictures were on the wall it felt unbalanced because the frames were all different thicknesses.  So then I tried this method which was much better...although I still had to tweak a little here and there.

I also feel the need to tell you that is really difficult to take pictures of pictures.  Getting the white balance right in such a small and dark space, plus the glare of all the glass, and odd reflections from the overhead light...it was quite the learning experience!

On the top left we have an Eric Carle style collage that Noah made when he was in kindergarten.  It's a man standing on grass by a river where his boat is tied up.  His kindergarten  teacher asked if was planning on giving the man hair and she said that Noah just gave her this incredulous look while answering, "You know, some people are bald."

The elephant is another Noah piece.  He drew that the summer in between first and second grade.  It was actually just a pencil drawing but I liked it so much that I drew over his lines with Sharpie and then used a paint marker to fill it in.  Clearly, our family likes elephants. :)

The couple kissing on bicycles is actually a greeting card that Geary gave me for one of our anniversaries.  It has a sweet love note inside and we have really been getting into bike riding so it seemed like a good piece of art for our collection.

The coral lobster is a digital design that I made after seeing a bunch of vintage flash cards at an antique store but not finding any for the letter L.

The seahorse is something Toby painted in preschool.  I cut it out of the coloring sheet he brought home and glued it on top of some scrapbook paper.  The sunshine print is from Katie Daisy on etsy.  Both the little round frame and the small L are from Michael's and the L is painted with metallic red nail polish.

I love this little tree.  Can you see the tiny lovebirds in it?  I found it here on the Feed Your Soul Project which is a website full of free printable art!  The umbrella is another Toby creation.  It's hard to tell in the picture but the raindrops are covered in glitter.

The orange tree is from the artist Colin Whitehurst and is actually meant to be a computer screen background.  But Geary and I both liked it so much I printed it out to frame.  Unfortunately we're out of black ink so the colors are way off.  Once we get a new ink cartridge I'll reprint it.  I was also pleased to see that the artist is connected with Wycliffe. You can see what the print is really supposed to look like here.

The black L is a vintage marquee letter.  According to the sign at the antique store it came from an old movie theater in Portland that was torn down.

There's my little Newberg heart map.  I've had several orders for these and they have been so much fun to make!  Thank you to those of you who've ordered some.  And it's not too late, I'm accepting orders until October 31st.

The white cursive L is from Michael's and I framed it in a shadow box with some Target wrapping paper as the background.

We used this matte instead of a guest book at our wedding.  The silver plaque in the middle says Witnesses. I love reading all the signatures and messages from our friends and family who came to our wedding.

Uh...please ignore the fingerprints.  This is another piece of my digital artwork.  I took profile pictures of each of the boys and then turned them into black silhouettes.  From there I filled the black space with different patterns.  I love how this turned out although I don't know if I'll be able to keep updating it as the boys grow.  We shall see!

In the middle of the whole thing I framed these wooden people that I found in the kid's craft section of Michael's.  The heart is stick taped directly to the wall and the people are resting on the edges of the frame.  I really like my modern little people but I hope others don't think they look too much like restroom signs. :)

I also placed some art on the board and batten in the laundry room which is directly across from our hallway.  I love how it brings more color and life to the space.

My camera batteries died right after this picture was taken so I'll give you a quick tour from left to right.  When I get the other wall done maybe I'll come back to this and show each piece in closer detail.

The green and yellow painting is something Toby did in Sunday school.  It was abstract but I think it looks like two brothers with their arms around each other.  

The peacock is from this artist on etsy.  When Toby saw it for the first time he asked, "Is that a tree?" I thought he was referring to the love bird print so I said yes.  And he asked, "Then why does it look like a bird?"  When I realized he had mean the peacock I said,  "Oh, yes, it is a bird.  It's a peacock."  And he replied, "Then why does it look like chicken?"  Art critics!

The white bunny is a styrofoam carving that Noah made at school but I can't remember which grade he was in. Family sign is from Michael's.  I think I might paint it yellow. The L is from Urban Outfitters and was silver but I painted it "Lagoon" a deep teal color. And finally the brown flowers are another Noah piece.  One of my very favorites.

And there you have a little tour of some of our art!  I hope you enjoyed it, I certainly enjoyed showing you!