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Saturday, April 26, 2014

Sunflower 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. I love painting Sunflowers and they are one of my signature flowers to paint.  I have been organizing older photos of my paintings and came across this one that was one of my favorites and it inspired me to pick up a bunch of Sunflowers from the market to paint.





Let's join Bentley, my Studio Assistant, in the garden to look for inspiration for a new Sunflower painting.



                              Looks like Bentley is thinking about where to look for inspiration!










The Sunflower Garden vintage sign is one of my favorites and I like to move it around the garden.



I love the Sunflowers in the green vintage watering can and can see them in a simple
 little painting sitting on the red chair.



                     Yellow and purple are a lovely combination and I used them in the new painting.

                                                          The completed painting.




Thank you for stopping by.  I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits to my blog, comments, e-mails, and those who follow my blog. Thank you for your kind comments about my post on Isaiah House.  Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special.

Have a lovely week.   Blessings, Erin

                                                   " The Lord is my strength."  Psalm 28:7



Sunday, April 20, 2014

Spring at Isaiah House - The Joyful House


Welcome.  I am so happy that you stopped by. You are invited to come with me to a very special house called Isaiah House located in historic Santa Ana, California. Isaiah House is run by Orange  County Catholic Workers and offers shelter to homeless Women, food and love to those in need and has been serving poor people with dignity since 1987. The also provide shelter and housing  to animals and  keep them safe until a no kill shelter picks them up.

The beautifully restored 1901 home imparts a feeling of peace and welcome as soon as one enters the front garden. The sign in front says "May Peace Prevail On Earth in four languages. There is a lending library in the front yard.








Three of the house cats greeted me when I walked into the garden. 


I am a member of W.H.O.A. -Women Helping One Another and volunteered to teach a Spring card and bookmark making class with three other members to the residents of Isaiah House.  The residents love to read and have a library filled with books as well as a "lending library" in their front yard. W.H.O.A. committed to teaching art  classes to the residents to create art that would be useful and beautiful.  As soon as we noticed their reading habits we knew we were going to teach a bookmark class.  They also have a need for cards to use to send thank you notes to the many volunteers who help at Isaiah House. We felt a Spring theme would perfect for their class.

We set up 4 tables with colored pencils, pens, stamps, ribbons,  stickers, etc. in pretty Spring colors and themes.





Libby, Jenelle and Lydia gave a brief demonstration and the class was off and running!  Note all close up photos were taken with the residents permission.


The beautiful green bird is now a permanent resident at Isaiah House and started singing and talking as soon as the class started as if to give his approval of the beautiful art that was being created with so much joy.It seemed appropriate that his cage was sitting in front of one of their book shelves since everyone was making bookmarks!

Jenelle Van de Mortel in the green t-shirt is an amazing artist/art teacher and owner of  Jenelle Designs and the visionary founder of W.H.O.A.. She can be reached at www.whoadesigns.com for information and/or to join W.H.O.A. 

Lydia in the black sweat shirt is a fabulous artist/quilter/seamstress and is a Manufacturing Representative in the home decorating/gift industry.  She has a delightful and informative blog where she gives tips on marketing, creating beautiful displays, etc. and you can reach her at www.lydiasaysblog.blogspot.com.  She will be teaching sewing classes at Isaiah House and introduced W.H.O.A. to Isaiah House.






















Libby and Erin with residents.  One was making surprise Easter cards to give to the Catholic Workers who so lovingly run Isaiah House and another  was making extra cards and bookmarks for residents who were not able to attend the class.
One of the  residents is an artist and  painted the mural being hung in the garden. She shared with us her beautiful art journal that she made in an earlier class taught by Jenelle and Lydia.  Lydia is going to teach a sewing class at Isaiah House and everyone is looking forward to her class.  



Spring flower seeds planted by a resident to add more color to the garden.




The residents are allowed to keep their pets with them and as of today they have 6 dogs in residence. All of the animals are so well behaved and add to the warm and loving environment at Isaiah House.They also provide dog food to the homeless living on the streets to feed their dogs.



Libby Williamson chatting with David, one of the many volunteers who was there with his mother to serve a yummy brunch to everyone.  It was his 12th birthday and he shared birthday cupcakes with everyone - Happy Birthday David!  Libby is a fabulous artist/teacher and owner of Blue Denim Designs. You can find a list of her classes at  www.dragonflyshopsandgardens.com



The animals seemed to have as much fun creating as the residents!  The back of the cards are stamped  "Original Art Created by Residents of Isaiah House". Around 150 cards were created by the end of our class.



 








As we were leaving one of the ladies pulled me aside to show me what she wrote on the back of her bookmark and how she felt about living at Isaiah House during the spring - she wrote "Joyful House".  We all  left the "Joyful House" with joy in our hearts and admiration for the four Catholic Workers and countless volunteers who offer shelter, food and love to those in need as well as rescue animals in need, and commented that we could not have picked a more joyful way to spend the day before Easter Sunday than teaching art to the lovely residents at Isaiah House.




Our Spring art class represents what W.H.O.A. is all about - Women Helping One Another and then reaching out to help Other Women In Need. As Jenelle says so often - "we are so powerful working together."


Thank you for visiting Isaiah House with me.  Have a lovely week.  Blessings, Erin

The following Bible verse seems so fitting for my blog post about Isaiah House:

"You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat."  Isaiah 25:4





Thursday, April 17, 2014

Easter Blessings




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.  Our Roses are in their first bloom of the year and I thought you may enjoy a little peek at them in my front yard while you sip your tea.

Bentley, my Studio Assistant, wanted to wear his rabbit ears to set the tone for Easter Roses  in our garden.  







The Roses are all in the front yard as that is where the sun is!





We lost a lot of our Inpatients to the horrible airborne virus last year; however, some of them were spared and we are hoping the ones in bloom this year will make it.





My favorite Roses are the Our Lady of Guadalupe - they are the old fashion fragrant  Roses and seem to last longer than the newer ones.





My Eastside Art Group decorated Easter eggs yesterday by using old silk men's ties and transferring the colors onto the eggs.  The colors were amazing.  








Thank  you for stopping by.  I sincerely appreciate your visits, e-mails, comments and those who follow my blog.


Wishing you and your family a Joyful and Happy Easter filled with Blessings.   Erin

                             "This is the day that the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it."  Psalm 118:24