Heart of the Island Gallery

Welcome.  I am so happy that you stopped by.  Today we are going to leave my garden and take a little tour of one of my favorite places - Balboa Island - a charming island located on the Newport Bay and home of The Heart of the Island Gallery.  I am so lucky that the gallery carries my art and am so honored to be there with so many local and talented artists.  We will be doing a "drive by tour" as I am not walking too much while waiting for knee surgery and Bentley, my Studio Assistant will be riding in the car with me.  I will share with you some of the art I  created just for the gallery and some of the inspirations on the island for my art.  We will take the ferry ride across the bay as it is so much fun.

Flags blowing in the wind  and sail boats usually end up somewhere in my paintings.

The island photos may be a little blurry as they were taken from my car with Bentley hanging his head out to get a better look at other dogs!!!  We will take a peek at some of the adorable cottages on the island that inspire my art.

I love that the cottages have flowers planted right along the sidewalks.  Maybe that is one of the reasons I love to add so many flower to my paintings.

The porch with the yellow umbrella was the inspiration for these paintings.

The cottages and porches with wicker furniture as well a my personal wicker furniture inspire my porch paintings.

                                  Heart of the Island Gallery located on the only main street in town.

Thank you for stopping by.  I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, e-mails, comments and those who follow my blog.  I am doing my best to post weekly, but may get a little behind due to my pending knee surgery as I am having some difficult walking and am not getting around as fast as normal.

Have a lovely week.  Blessings, Erin

" Let brotherly love continue."  Hebrews 13:1

Main Street on the Island 

Painting Glorious Pink Roses for Debra's Cottage

Welcome.  I am so happy that you stopped by,  My garden gate is always open for you to come in and sit and relax with a cup of tea while I share with you the inspirations for my art.  I have been on a blog break painting some small rose paintings for Mother's Day at Debra's Cottage.

 My roses are in the first bloom and are glorious.  Let's join Bentley, my Studio Assistant, in the garden to show you our  roses.

                              My roses are in the front yard as they get sun there all day there.

The Our Lady of Guadalupe rose is only two years old and each year she gets a little bit larger.  

The Iceberg roses almost grow wild in our part of Southern California and bloom through November.

I took a little break to paint some small Rose paintings to take to Debra's Cottage for Mother's Day.

I am so excited to let you know that  my paintings can also be found at Debra's Cottage located at 

2777 Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, CA 92626  -  714  662-5828 -www.debrascottage.com.  I will be blogging about Debra's Cottage soon. Unfortunately as soon as I moved into Debra's Cottage early this year I started having problems with my knee and broke a bone in my foot so I have not been able devote the time I want to in introducing you to this fabulous store.  I am on the mend and will be about and about soon and will also be painting there once a month.!!!

TO CELEBRATE MY MOVE TO DEBRA'S COTTAGE AND MOTHER'S DAY , ALL OF THE SMALL ROSE  PAINTINGS SHOWN ON MY BLOG  POST TODAY WILL BE FOR SALE THERE FOR UNDER $50.00

Thank you for stopping by.  I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments, e-mails and those of you who follow my blog.  Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special.  
Have a lovely week.   Blessings, Erin

                 "He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace."  Luke 8:48

Painting Yellow Flowers In A Blue Vintage Vase

Welcome.  I am so happy that you stopped by.  My garden gate is always open for you to come in and sit and relax with a cup of tea  while I share with you the inspirations for my art.  Recently I found some charming vintage cobalt blue vases at the Goodwill for $3.95 each and want to find some yellow flowers to arrange in them to paint.

Let's join Bentley my Studio Assistant in the garden to see what yellow flowers are in bloom.

While sitting in the garden my neighbor dropped by with a bouquet of Sunflowers  she picked up the Farmers Flower market this morning.  I think they will be perfect for the vintage cobalt blue vase to paint.

Thank you for stopping by.  I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, e-mails, comments and those who follow my blog.  Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special.  I am working on several large paintings for the gallery and will be on a short blog break for a few weeks.

Have a lovely week.  Blessings,  Erin

"The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places . . .and you shall be like a watered garden . . .whose waters never fail.  Isaiah  58:11

Boston You Are In My Heart And Prayers

Dear Readers, Please join me in prayers for those affected by the explosions in Boston yesterday:

Lord, please wrap your arms around the victims, families, police officers, emergency workers, volunteers and others who witnessed and quickly responded to this horrible tragedy and give them strength, healing and peace.
Amen.

Re purposing a Painting

Welcome.  My garden gate is always open for you to come in and sit and relax with a cup of tea while I share with you this inspirations for my art.  Bentley, my Studio Assistant, is in the garden waiting to bring you into my studio today.  I have been  painting in my studio as I had a shot in my knee and have to stay off my feet for 48 hours -( ouch!!) - I have  to stay out of my garden, but am so thankful to have my studio to paint in.

Spring has arrived in Southern California and all sorts of flowers are in bloom.


I love re-purposing old paintings and decided to re-paint this one.  It used to have a garden trellis in the background and I wanted to freshen it up with the ocean and a blue sky! It also had a basket of red roses and I wanted to put Sunflowers in the basket (one of my signature flowers that appear in almost all of of work.

The painting will hang over a bed that has this old vintage Ralph Lauren floral fabric and red and white buffalo check pillows and bed skirt.The colors are reds, blues and yellows on a white background in the vintage fabric and I want to incorporate those colors into the painting.

I decided to paint the Hydrangeas purple as the blue did not show up against the blue ocean and added Sunflowers to the basket as well as lying down.

                                                               

                                                             The finished painting!

Dear Readers, thank you for stopping by.  I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, e-mails, comments and those of you who follow my blog.  Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special.


Have a lovely week.  Blessings, Erin


                             "I shall walk at liberty, for I have sought your precepts."  Psalm 119:45