Maidenhair Fern Painted Glass Picture Frame

I do most of my paintings on glassware. But today I tried something a little different with an old picture frame. It was dusty, covered in a cobweb, stacked amongst other forgotten items in the garage. The glass cleaned up pretty and there weren't any scratches so I decided to use glass paints to create my mother's favorite fern, a Maidenhair Fern.

The little 8x10 painting took one and a half hours to make. I used black for the stem of the fern, yellow for the base color of all the fronds and then did a second layer of dark sap green followed with some leaf details in emerald green.

The clear pane of glass with a simple fern looks stunning hanging in the window. But my favorite part is the reflection of the painting on the widow sill. I think the colors look like they are rippling with the sunlight. 

A painting project like this is one anyone could try at home yourself. All you need is an old picture frame, glass or acrylic paints and a little inspiration. Glass paints, such as Pebeo or Art Deco provide a nice translucency for the sun to shine through. Acrylic paints would probably be a bit more opaque, which may be just the look you are going for depending on your design.