Spring Garden Spruce Up Painting Faux Flagstones

Welcome.  My garden gate is always open for you to come in and sit and relax for a few minutes with a cup of tea. I have been working in the garden and sprucing things up for Spring this week, and  have been thinking about painting some faux flagstones on the concrete patio floor off my kitchen and on the path behind my house where my kitchen herbs grow. 

 My blog friend Carol Cook, www.artandsand.blogspot.com  posted about her charming patio makeover a few months ago - she had real flagstones and had them dug up and re-set in concrete.  I loved the look and started thinking about painting flagstones on my concrete kitchen patio floor !!!!!!

The patio is in a sunny location and Bentley, my Studio Assistant, loves to spend time lying on the warm concrete and  I love to sit there and have my morning tea. 

I drew large flagstones with chalk and painted them with several colors of patio paint and painted a shadow along the edge. I painted a red stripe on the step and a little border of brick to match the real brick on the rest of my patio.

The path behind my house is  long and the perfect sunny place for kitchen herbs.  I call it the "green house" as I also start seedlings there and nurse sick plants back to health in the California sun.

The patio paint is very easy to use and has a built in sealer. 

Thank you for stopping by.  I sincerely appreciate your comments, e-mails and those following my blog.  Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see my paint something special.  The Pansies are glorious and are calling me to paint them!

Have a lovely week.  Blessings,   Erin

"He made the earth by His power; He founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding."  Jeremiah 51:15 

Celebrating Spring with Pansies Here .There.Everywhere

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.  Today we are celebrating the arrival of Spring with a little tour of the glorious Pansies in bloom in my garden.

                          It looks like Bentley, my Studio Assistant, is already out smelling the Pansies.

When the Pansies start "trailing" I like to put them on the old ladder so they can cascade down the ladder.

                So much fun painting the Pansies on blocks of wood and using them as "art in the garden".

Thank you for stopping by.  I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, e-mails, comments and my blog followers.  Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special.  Next week I will be back painting Pansies on canvas rather than wood blocks.

Have a lovely week.  Blessings,   Erin


                                 Hannah's Prayer -  "My heart rejoiceth in the Lord".   l Samel 2:1

Art In The Garden with Whimsical Owls

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. Last year I read an article in Somerset Workshop magazine about a wonderful artist, Junelle Jacobsen's charming and whimsical mixings of all mediums in her art.  She embraces the beauty of the world around her and paints on canvas, blocks of wood and all sorts of things using acrylics, watercolors, pens, bits of paper, etc. in her mixed media art.  Needless to say, I fell in love with her art and signed up for her "Saturday" on line class to learn how to paint on wood blocks and canvas using mixed media. 

Let's join Bentley, my Studio Assistant, in the garden and I will share with you some of the art I created this past week using methods I learned from Junelle.

Junelle teaches and encourages her students how to create loose and whimsical sketches and then transfer them onto blocks of wood, paper, canvas, etc.  Our first lesson was to practice sketching owls and then paint and use various mixed media methods on wood blocks.

I sketched an owl and then transferred the sketch to canvas and used bits of paper to create the feathers and then painted my owl. 

After I learned to use a white paint pen - I went back and painted more white highlights to add more whimsy and fun to my owl.

Next I sketched two owls using Junelle's example that she taught us in her class.  Then I  cut out my paper sketch  and glued it to a wooden block that I painted in a spring green using inspirational  colors from flowers blooming in my garden. Next I painted over my sketch and created a painting and  painted the sides and back.

Junelle taught us how to add scraps of fabric to add texture to our owls - I used a scrap of burlap for the wings  and loved the way it turned out.

We also learned to attach a message on the wooden blocks - below is the message on back of my " two "friends" owls.

I wanted to create an owl family to put in my garden and painted another owl using the same methods.

Message on back of this owl:

                                 My whimsical owl family all settled in as "art in the garden".

Thank you for stopping by.  I sincerely appreciate you visits, comments, e-mails, and those who follow my blog.  Stay tuned and next week I will share more of the whimsical "blooms" art on wood blocks we will be painting with Junelle this Saturday.

If anyone is interested in one of Junelle Jacobsen's classes you can reach her at yesandamenblog.blogspot.com

Have a lovely week.   Blessings,  Erin


                                         "Let your good spirit lead me on a level path.  Psalm 143:10

Daffodils - Here - There - Everywhere

Welcome.  I am so happy that you stopped by for a visit.  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.We have had much needed rain and finally a little Winter weather in Southern California and the flowers are singing for joy.

Let's join Bentley, my Studio Assistant, in the garden to see what is in bloom and just waiting to be painted.

After I checked out my garden I stopped by one of my favorite garden shops, Roger's Gardens, and to my delight found they were having their annual Spring Daffodil show.

It was early in the morning and they were just setting up the show.  I had no idea that there were so many varieties of Daffodils!  I learned that there are 13 descriptive divisions of Daffodils and l,000's of hybrids.

                               They were just staring to sort the varieties for the show.

My photo of a few varieties is blurred  - it shows how they are displayed for the show.

I love the way the yellow Daffodils look next to the purple Pansies in my garden and am going to paint them.

                                                               "Art in the Garden"

Thank you for stopping  by.  I 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.

Have a lovely week.   Blessings, Erin

"For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light."  Psalm  36:9