Painting the Mat

The fun part of mat making is painting the main art, which is the reason I started making mats. Most of the time it takes more than one coat to make colors opaque, especially with red or burgundy. In this case, to show an artisan look, I wanted the finished mat to display a slight brush stroke which means I only had to paint the entire mat twice. There have been times when I have had to paint a mat three or even four times to get the desired effect. Next, coating the mat.