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Thursday, February 24, 2011

Painting Pansies and a Vintge Cloche




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 the inspirations fr my art. I have so many pretty pansies this year in my garden I decided to try drying some so I can enjoy their delightful little faces throughout the year. Of course I enjoy painting them all year. Now that they are blooming I want to re- purpose this painting with a vintage inspired cloche and add more pansies to the artwork.




I started off painting out the bowl of pink roses, flower pots and pansy seed packets.


Let's join Bentley, my helpful studio assistant, in the garden, and look for pansy inspirations to add to the re- purposed painting.










Finding inspiration . . . . . .







Did you know that painting pansies was a favorite pastime of the Victorian ladies? I love to envision the ladies who painted them so long ago spending an afternoon chatting and painting pansies while drinking a cup of tea. My cloche is a reproduction of a Victoria cloche and I love to put a little pot of pansies in it to paint and imagine that I am painting with the Victorian ladies whileI drinking a cup of tea.








I brought pansies in from the garden and set them up on a table in front of the window to paint. I ended up not using the terra cotta pot and instead used a blue and white tea pot and cup as you will see below.






Here . . . . .There . . . . . .




"As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field." Psalm 103:15







I like the shape of the yellow pot and decided to put it in the painting.















Everywhere . . . . .








The blue and white tea pot and cup ended up in the painting.







The completed re-purposed painting with added yellow pansies, yellow pot and blue and white tea pot and cup. I like to bounce one color around the painting to bring a feelingof harmony - in this case I used yellow. I also painted out the garden background and added a view with a blue sky and ocean with sailboats.



Thank you for stopping by. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments and those of you who follow my blog. I read and cherish each comment and will stop by to visit you as time allows.



I have had so many request to paint pansies this time of year that I will probably paint more of them next week. This is a great time to paint and enjoy pansies since they are in full bloom in Southern California. I hope you are not tired of seeing them . . . Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special in addition to pansies.


Have a lovely week. Blessings, Erin

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Touches of Yellow and Red

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 hot tea while I share with you the inspirations behind my art. Last year I decided to add touches of yellow and red to my garden for a little more punch and loved the new colors. I have been experimenting using yellow and red on some small paintings of my vintage bicycle that can be attached to gift baskets for a Spring fundraiser for one of our local charities that my son and I support. The little paintings make charming additions to hang on a picket fence or front door of a cottage and are good size (8X10) to attach to the raffle gift baskets.



Bentley, my Studio Assistant, is exploring the garden looking for Winter touches of yellow and red to show you.




Imagine my surprise when I opened the new issue of the fabulous Flea Market Gardens magazine . . . . only to find . . . . a photo of my vintage bicycle taken last year after I added the touches of yellow and red. Just the inspiration I was looking for.




I was so honored that the magazine also featured my garden in a delightful article called "Cottage Style" that was beautifully written by Deb Wiley and photographed by Mark Lohman. Deb gives lots of great tips in her article about creating a cottage style garden with flowers and color and tells how to get the look. The magazine is filled with ideas on creating gardens with flea market finds, bargain ideas, garden re-dos, cottage whimsy and lighting up shade areas in your garden. I hope the magazine is the first of many issues as it is filled with great ideas for those of us who love rust, re purposing, recycling, and reusing flea market finds.



The photo below of my old blue bird house was also taken last year when I added yellow and
red (it was not in the magazine).




Even though my garden is in the "winter stage" I have yellow and red primroses and
yellow pansies.








Winter color can also be added to your garden with a colorful garden sign.




Color can also be added with the addition of a little red chair planter.


More bunches of yellow Sunflowers from Trader Joe's at $3.98 a bunch add much needed Winter color.




My red garden boots always add a punch of red - I leave them in the garden for color when I am not wearing them.



I can't resist hanging a bunch of Sunflowers in an old flea market red tin to add a touch of Winter color to my garden.




"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4


Thank you for stopping by and thank you to all of you who sent me e-mails telling me that my vintage bicycle and garden were in the fabulous new Flea Market Gardens magazine. . 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.
Have a lovely week. Blessings, Erin

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Blue and Yellow Inspirations

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 behind my art. We are having more beautiful warm weather in California this weekend - the sky is blue and I have some beautiful Sunflowers I got from Trader Joe's for $3.98 a bunch. Let's go into the garden to what Bentley, my Studio Assistant, has found for us.









Every year I like to re purpose various rooms using items I already have - keeping in mind my favorite quote about re purposing . . . . "it's not what you don't have, but what you do with what you do have". This year I want to paint a small painting to go in my guest bedroom with a seaside . . cottage garden feeling and use the blue and white bedding from another bedroom to give the room a new look. Let's go see what we can find . . . .




Finding inspiration . . . . .



Here . . . .



There . . . .



Everywhere . . . . .




I want the painting to be in harmony with the same feeling as the large painting over the bed.




With a seaside cottage garden feel . . . .



And with a piece of my "signature" blue and white china.



















The completed painting with Sunflowers, red Roses, lavender plant and pot of Primroses from my garden, a garden book and a cup of tea.




"But let all who take refuge in you rejoice:let them sing for joy." Psalm 5:11



Thank you for stopping by. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments and those of you who are following my blog. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special. I have requests for more Pansies and a Spring Garden Sign with a rabbit.

Have a lovely week. Blessings, Erin

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Roses, Friends and Valentines Day



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 do not normally ramble in my blog, but this one is a little different. For me Valentines Day is about the warmth and love of my family and friends and sharing the joys of my art, my garden and my life.






Sandra's Eden roses






I eceived an e-mail yesterday from a blogging friend named Sandra asking me if I was going to post about Valentines Day. Sandra was a stranger to me who left a very heartfelt comment on Fabulous Fifi's blog in 2008 (www.fabulousfifi.typepad.com). She was going through treatment for breast cancer and her comment to Fifi was about how much her beautiful blog brought peace and comfort to her during her chemo therapy treatments. At the time I was a very lucky 7 year breast cancer survivor and Sandra's comment really touched my heart as I had been there and done that. I knew that I wanted to get in touch with her to let her know that I wanted to be there for her and could relate to what she was going through.


Please have another cup of tea as this is a rather long post.



I sent Sandra an e-mail and we soon became fast friends with much in common beside breast cancer. . . we were both gardeners and loved our cottage gardens . . . loved roses . . Sandra especially loved pink roses . . . we both grew up with romantic Grandmothers . . Sandra's Grandmother, Josefina, was from Spain and made the lace that she used to sew lace wedding dresses (how romantic can you get) and my Grandmother, Pearl, was from Ireland and was an avid rose gardener and dried rose petals to make potpourri so her home always smelled like roses. We both loved Fifi's blog and the wonderful thrifty and beautiful projects she taught her readers and aspired to start our own blogs. My sister and I are very close and we both prayed and corresponded with Sandra. As we got to know her we were so touched by Sandra's courage and beautiful spirit that we wanted to send her a little gift. I painted her pink Eden roses from one of the photographs she sent me and my sister, Leslie, made her a soft pink pillow to lay her head on when she was not feeling well.

At the same time I painted a cottage roses sign to hang in my garden from Sandra's photographs of her pink Eden roses.







The above photo was taken in my garden by photographer Mark
Lohman of an old wash stand with the cottage roses sign.

When I started my blog Sandra was a big supporter and encouraged and cheered me on to learn to post every week. Her goal was to start her own blog when she was well. We learned so much from each other - learned that a true friend cheers you on and shares joy as well as comforts in life's challenging moments.



My sister and I encouraged Sandra through her treatments and she looked forward to doing the same thing that we did for her for other women ( we both understand that women who have had breast cancer seem to have a bond and are just naturally supportive of each other).






I am very happy to report that Sandra is now well and started her own blog and posts on Facebook and is supporting other women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. You can visit Sandra at (www.verandahousesandra.blogspot.com )and find her on Facebook under
Sandra Dias.

When I asked her if I could share our friendship story and love of roses on my Valentines Day blog she said yes and sent me some photographs of her home and garden decorated for her favorite day - Valentines day.





Sandra's beautiful and romantic home and decorations . . . .





















After seeing Sandra's lovely home and garden - especially the decorated garden bed I knew that it was time for me to paint her a sign with Eden roses for her garden for Valentines - after all it is her favorite day of the year. By the way we have never met in person and plan to do so one day as she lives in Northern California and I live in Southern California.

Bentley, my Studio Assistant, and I went into my garden to look for inspiration. Keep in mind that I do not have any roses blooming - I have pink Tulips and red roses purchased at the market but no blooming roses as they have been cut back for the winter. Sometime I put my rose art in the garden to brighten it up when no roses are blooming.






Looks like Bentley found the little cottage roses sign that hangs in my garden.





































After much consideration and thought I decided not to paint a new sign , but to gift my Cottage Roses sign to Sandra for her garden. I painted the sign at the same time I painted the roses for Sandra in 2008 and used a photo of her Eden roses from her garden as the inspiration. I named it "Sandra's Roses" and always think of her when I see the sign. The sign is very special and the photograph shown at the beginning of my post taken by Mark Lohman of the wash stand is currently in the fabulous new magazine "FLEA MARKET GARDENS". I feel it is now time for the special sign to go live in Sandra's garden among her Eden Roses.




"Sandra's Roses"




"This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118.24


Wishing you and your Loved Ones a very Happy Valentines Day.



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.


Have a lovely week. Hugs and Blessings and Happy Valentines Day. Erin