PAINT by number, the 1950s do-it-yourself art craze that swept the nation with the promise of "every man a Rembrandt," apparently never died. It's just been dozing for half a century, waiting for a new generation of technology, collectors and would-be artists to again succumb to its siren call.
These days, original paint-by-number canvases are considered collectibles, the best ones selling briskly on the Internet, at flea markets and in sidewalk bins at bargain shops. New paint-by-number firms pop up regularly, with a growing selection of subjects available online, at craft and hobby shops and in big box stores.
There is little nostalgic about the rebirth. It's 21st century all the way. Today, computers do the job that took staffs of full-time artists, working by hand in the 1950s to deconstruct art works into paint-by-number canvases.
Now scan an image into a computer, and the machine spits out a page full of numbered segments to be filled in by amateur artists who weren't even born when the first paint-by-number fad hit the scene.
People like Cathryn Barmon and Mark Deutsch, both 39, married 16 years. For most of that time, they shared their lives and Manhattan apartment with Pooh, a mixed-breed dog. "Pooh was such an important presence that when she died we found it hard to cope," Barmon says. They'd noticed old paint-by-number pictures in nearby shops and decided to paint one themselves. "It would be a portrait, something hands-on that we could do together that would keep Pooh's presence very close."
They sent a favorite photo of their dog to easy123art.com, paid $90 and two weeks later received a kit with 42 paint colors, two brushes and a canvas that looked like a coloring-book page -- except that within each blank outlined space was a number that corresponded to a numbered container of paint.
The couple, who own a graphics and website design company, didn't exactly color inside the lines. "We wanted to give it something extra, make it our own," Barmon says. So they added colors and highlighted it with gold leaf paint. "Now it's perfect. It hangs above our bed."
The owner of easy123art, Aimee Cecil, 34, of Louisville, Ky., typifies the new paint-by-number entrepreneur. She's the mother of two toddlers, has "a craftsy nature" and is totally attuned to technology.
Before starting her online pets and people portrait firm six years ago, she hired an expert to develop software that converts any photo portrait into a high quality paint-by-number format.
