White Wicker 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 for my art.  Even though today is the first day of summer, we are still having beautiful cool weather here in Southern California near the coast. I get so many e-mails asking where I find the inspiration for the white wicker that I paint  -- well - first of all I am from North Carolina and grew up with lots of white wicker on our front porch as well as the front yard.  I have always loved wicker - especially white - and now  collect it.  I have two wicker  chairs on the patio off my kitchen and a vintage rocker and two wicker chairs inside my home as well as a coffee table and three side tables.  I keep the vintage wicker inside and use the newer wicker outside.

Let's join Bentley, my Studio Assistant, in the garden to show you the outdoor wicker that appears in so many of my paintings.

                                                             Finding Inspiration . . . . .

                                               Here . . . . There . . . . . Everywhere . . . .

Indoor vintage wicker chair that I also use in my paintings.

I used my white wicker chairs and changed the pillow colors around  a bit and added my vintage round table and a few more flowers and created a new painting "Relaxing By The Sea".  The painting can be seen at The Heart of the Island Gallery on Balboa Island.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry."  Matthew 6:25

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

HAPPY SUMMER

Painting A Pink Bicycle

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 am a member of a wonderful group of creative women called W.H.O.A. - Women Helping One Another.  The group volunteered to teach art to the Rowdy Ridge Gang Camp that is part of the Scott Newman Center.  The mission statement of the camp is to provide a life-affirming program for families recovering from drug addiction or are survivors of spousal abuse.  The group also volunteered to decorate the Mom's cabin and provide them with a welcome gift bag.  I volunteered to decorate the Mom's cabin with some of my art and paint a Welcome sign for their cabin door..

                 I am participating with Pink Saturday to share my pink post.  You can visit            www.howsweetthesound.typepad.com to visit lots of wonderful pink posts as well as celebrate Father's Day.


                         Let's join Bentley, my Studio Assistant, in the garden to look for inspiration for the Moms.

I bought some beautiful pink and rose Peony flowers at my favorite flower shop - Trader Joe's.

Finding inspiration . . . .

Love the way the pink and rose flowers look with the green birdcage.

                                                                            Here . . . .

I decided to paint a pink bicycle with a green background Welcome sign.  Since my vintage bicycle is blue I used photos of my Friend, Cathy's, pink bicycle for the painting.

There . . . . Everywhere . . . . .

I wanted the bicycle to be very pretty  for the Moms, but a little bit rustic since it will be on the door of their cabin in the mountains in California.   I added burlap ribbon to add a touch of rustic.

I also tried a little "mixed-media" and glued words on that say "journey" "joy" and "laugh".

The  note on back of the painting to the Moms  reads:

 "Be filled with joy and laughter . . . life is a beautiful ride".

"May the God of steadfastness . . .grant you to live in harmony with one another." Romans 15:5

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

Painting My Blue Vintage Bicycle

Welcome.  I am so happy that you stopped by. My garden gate is always open for yor to come in and sit and relax with a cup of tea while I share with you the inspirations for my art. Let's join Bentley, My Studio Assistant, to look for inspirations in the garden to paint.

Sunflowers are one of my favorite flowers to paint and are in most of my garden paintings.

My 1958 Rocket vintage bicycle is so special - it is not in condition to ride anymore so I gave it a new home parked in my garden.  I am often asked to sell it for parts and I can  not bear to see it torn  up -  it is now resting comfortably and happily among the flowers in my garden and is frequently the inspiration for my garden paintings.

I plant the basket with seasonal  flowers - this Spring the basket is planted with red geraniums and a few Nasturtium.

This year I am documenting my garden by painting some of my favorite things and wanted to paint my dear old vintage bicycle resting among the flowers.

Thank you for stopping by.  I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments, e-mails, 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 will be taking a little blog break and will be back on June 18th.

Have a lovely day.  Blessings, Erin

The  Geraniums are in full bloom and I wanted to share them with you before I take a blog break.

"May the God of steadfastness . . . grant you to live in harmony with one another."  Romans 15:5