Happy Pink Saturday/Breast Cancer Awareness

Welcome. I am so happy that you stopped by. My garden gate is always open for you to come in and sit, have a cup of tea and relax while I share with you inspirations for my paintings. This week I am very happy to participate in Pink Saturday's Breast Cancer Awareness weekend.

As a nine year breast cancer survivor I am thankful and committed to use my art to help raise money to find a cure.

Please join me for a "pink" tea party to celebrate. I just picked the last of my pink roses and would love to share them with you. My Our Lady of Guadalupe pink roses were just waiting for you to stop by.

Bentley, my Studio Assistant, is in the garden looking for pink roses.



Finding inspiration . . . . .

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Rose painting inspired by pink roses.

Inpatients and Cosmos are still blooming.

There is power in united prayer to find a cure for breast cancer.

Jesus said " Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them". Mt:18:20. Let's all join together as we celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness Month to pray for a cure.

Please visit the Pink Saturday blogs celebrating Breast Cancer Awareness Month at

http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/

Thank you for stopping by. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments and those who are following my blog. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special.

Happy Pink Saturday. Have a lovely week. Blessings, Erin

Happy Fall With A Tour of Roger's Gardens

Welcome. I am so happy that you stopped by. Finally, Fall officially arrives this week and what better time to take you on a little tour of my favorite Garden Shop, Roger's Gardens. Roger's is located in Newport Beach, California on 5 acres of beautiful gardens filled with lush flowers, food specialities, a potting shed, fabulous outdoor furniture and an art gallery. I participated in my very first out door art show at Roger's and the garden has always had a special place in my heart. Bentley, my Studio Assistant, is all ready to take you on a tour - let's go look for Fall Inspirations.

"God richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment" I Timothy 6:17

The garden is filled with lots of fall colors this time of year.

Thank you for stopping by. I love hearing from your and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments and those who are following 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

Getting Ready for Fall with a Scare Crow Painting

Welcome. I am so happy that you stopped by. My garden gate is always open for you to come in, sit and relax and sip a cup of tea while I share inspirations for my painting. Would you like to paint a fall Welcome Scare Crow painting with me?

Bentley, my helpful Studio Assistant, is already in the garden looking for fall inspirations. It is a little early in Southern California for our change of season, even though Fall is right around the corner. I was able to find some "faux fall inspirations, stored away from last year. I call my stash "early fall gatherings"

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens."

Ecclesiastes 3:1

Finding inspiration . . . . . .

Early Fall Gatherings

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I like to start my early Fall decorating in my garden.



The little welcome scare crow has been around for several years and I like to find a new place for him every year. The little garden grouping will be the inspiration for our Welcome painting.

Everywhere . . . . .

You are welcome to copy my drawing if you would like to paint along with me.

I have red and blue accents in my garden and decided to use blues and red in my painting. I always paint the entire painting with a light coat of paint to get the feel of the colors before I start darkening up the painting. That way, if you do not like the colors, it is easy to change your color direction.


I paint with water based acrylic paints as they are non toxic. I like to use Liquitex paints. I base coated the entire canvas before I sketched the painting. Once you have decided on your colors paint in your darks first and then high light the lights. I use two screw eye hooks on the back of the canvas and tie a coordinating ribbon to use as a hanger. I also put on 3 coats of a matt - non yellowing varnish on the canvas to protect it from the sun. You can paint on a board, piece of slate or purchase a canvas or wooden plaque from your local craft store. Michael's and Joanne Fabrics carries wooden plaques.

The completed painting.

I call these little paintings "Door Hangers" as they are perfect to hang on your door or garden gate. They also look adorable on a picket fence.

Have fun and enjoy your Fall "Door Hanger".

Thank you for stopping by. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, 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 for Fall.

Have a lovely week. Blessings, Erin

Painting a Garden Bridhouse

Welcome. I am so glad that you stopped by. My garden gate is always open for you to come in and sit down and relax with a cup of tea while I share with you the inspirations for a birdhouse painting that we can paint together.

Bentley, my helpful Studio Assistant, is already in the garden looking for inspirations.

One of my birdhouses and Welcome signs was shown in this month's Romantic country magazine in a delightful article on "Divine Birdhouses" The photo was taken by Mark Lohman and styled by the Divine Sunday Hendrickson. The article states "The notion of a cozy house is as appealing to finches, robins and wrens as it is to you and your family. And birdhouses, whether designed to blend into their natural surroundings or provide a lively spot of color, double as decorative accents even indoors- with faux birds." The article rang so true with me as you can see from the photo above that I incorporated birdhouses and a faux bird as part of my potting bench.

Earler this year I painted my blue church birdhouse, shown in the article, red and have now decided to repaint it back blue.

I did not realize how many birdhouses I have in my garden until I read the article and realized that I use them to add spots of interest and color.

This is actually a bird feeder that I added two little faux birds for a touch of whimsy.

Let's take a look around my garden and look for a birdhouse to paint together.

I bought this flower shaped birdhouse at Joanne's at the end of the season clearance for $7.95 and love it.

Finding inspiration . . . . . .

This birdhouse is in my Art Studio and would be a fun one to paint.

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This was another find at Joanne's clearance for $7.95.

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Everywhere . . . .

This is one of my favorite birdhouses as I like the different levels. I painted the roof red for more interest, and of course, you can paint your roof any color you like.

Here is a rough sketch of the birdhouse I painted. You are welcome to use it to paint.

I am painting my birdhouse beside and Adirondack chair. The chair may be a little hard for beginners so I will not show it and will focus on the birdhouse. Note I am painting a vine around the birdhouse to add interest.

After you pant the vine - add some darks first and then add some greens as leaves.

When you finish the leaves, add some color for flowers on the vine. I used white for my flowers. Add some shadows under the roof and along the sides of the birdhouse.

After you paint the vine, add some flowers around the base and a little garden path. I added a little chimney to give more interest.

Recently someone asked me for some of my favorite garden quotes about birds and flowers and it brought to mind:

"The birds of the air nest by the waters; they sing among the branches" Psalm 104:12

"God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and when the voice of God is heard it is in the twittering of the birds."

"Where flowers bloom - so does hope." Lady Bird Johnson

Thank you for stopping by. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments and those who are following my blog. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special. With fall just around the corner I thought it would be fun for us to paint a Fall Welcome sign together as well as a Rooster in future posts.

Even though we are not having fall weather yet in Southern California, I will be taking a little blog break to do some fall decorating and looking for Fall inspirations for us to paint together.

Have a lovely week. Blessings, Erin