Why Do I Paint Art On Rugs & Carpets?

About two and a half years ago ive painted my first rug at home with just 4, 5 cans of spray paint. Before I was a high level painter on rugs and carpets I saw a a graffiti artist painting on rugs with spray cans and I thought it's the easiest way but was it?

People around art communities always asking me that question: what kind of paint do you use to paint on rugs? And I tell them I use all kinds of paint and dye depending on the look I want to achieve. I know It's a general answer but let me explain. I always use genuine wool rugs as canvas and painting on wool fibers isn't an easy job. There is too many artists in Türkiye and around the world started to paint on rugs and carpets but almost all of them using rug, carpet image printed fabrics, attached to a non slip base material with a velvet like surface. With that said, painting on genuine wool rugs is maybe 20x harder because you deal with so much more and long wool fibers absorbing any kind of paint. I also tried spray paint cans on my first attempt and quickly realised you can't control any flow, thickness with spray paint and there's tons of chemicals you should breathe even with a good mask and you're also adding too much chemicals to that wool rug. No matter what brand or type, spray cans aren't fit for those who seek precise work.

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Then I bought a 0.3mm nozzle airbrush and started working on painting skills over wool surface, mixing my acrylic colors like an artist should, even if I use black most of the time, and experimented on painting thin, sharp lines and edges like a drawing. I practiced about 6 months to gain enough experience to confidently spray a long, single hair line on a wool surface with a single move because you don't have a second chance on rugs! Through that time I also practiced a lot with my lines, fading and shading like a first year fine art student.

After a year I started painting on rugs, I've made 3 rugs and two of them have an artwork on both front and back face of them. People don’t know that those rugs were my first attempts, and even if they don’t notice, I knew they had many flaws and weren’t the best quality I could create. That’s why I didn’t share them, but I didn’t throw them away either — I kept and used them while decorating my home.”

This is more or less how my journey of painting and creating art on rugs began. After two and a half years, with all the experience, knowledge, and skills I’ve gained, I can now create much larger works in a much shorter time, and I’m able to use every type of paint — acrylics, oils, spray paint, airbrush, and fabric dyes — to achieve any look I want. In short, the main difference between painting on a rug or kilim and working on canvas is that on a rug you have to plan everything according to the texture of the surface; you must move accordingly, because you can never paint the same spot twice, remove what you’ve applied, or cover it up.”

“In future posts, I’ll continue explaining different techniques and aesthetic details. See you.”