New Blog Design and Blog Button

Welcome.  I am so happy that you stopped by.  My garden gate is always open for you to come in and sit and relax while I share with you the inspirations for my art.  Today I am very excited to share with you my new blog design done by the fabulous Karen Valentine.  I wanted a new and different look for my blog and asked Karen to use my art  to design the new banner and a blog button. I sent her lots of photos of my paintings - told her a little bit about myself, my art, and my blog and asked her to surprise me with something different.

Some of the things I love and shared with Karen about myself and that end up in my paintings:

Flowers

Cottage Garden

Vintage blue bicycle

Blue Skies

Blue Ocean

Blue and white tea set

Roses

Sunflowers

Garden Hats

White Wicker

Blue and White China

In just a few hours Karen e-mailed me my new blog banner - she managed to combine items from my paintings on the blog banner and create a blog button for me with all things I love. I was blown away with how accurately she captured me.  Thank you Karen for the beautiful new design.  I love - love -love it.

Here are the paintings that she used:

This is the painting that Karen used to create my  blog button.  Please feel free to grab the button off my blog  if you want to use it.

Karen even created something special for my Studio Assistant, Bentley.

Karen Valentine is also the creator of the popular and fun blog party Where Bloggers Create at My Desert Cottage  I will be back on July l4th to share with you my studio and participate in the blog party.

Thank you for stopping by.  I sincerely appreciate your visits, e-mails, comments and those who follow my blog.  Thank you for your e-mails about how hard it is to leave comments with the new word verification. I turned off the word verification to make it easier to leave comments.  Have a lovely week.  Blessing, Erin

My art is protected by US and International copyright laws and I ask that you kindly not use it in any way without my permission.  Thank you.  Erin

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

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

Painting Sunflowers and A little Green Chair

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.  My art is  inspired by God's beautiful creations and the simple and everyday beauty of flowers.  A bouquet of Sunflowers purchased from the market placed in an old rusty red watering can always makes  me smile.

                       Let's join Bentley, my Studio Assistant, to see what we can find to paint.


                                                                 Finding Inspiration . . . . . .

The cheerful Sunflowers in rusty red watering can are just waiting to be painted.

Here . . . . There . . . .

Everywhere . . . . .

I liked how the red watering can looked on the green chair and ended up painting them - added a little bird for an additional garden touch.

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

Thank you for stopping by. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate and cherish 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 me me paint something special.

Have a lovely week.  Blessings, Erin