Garden inspiration

I love spring !

New growth, new beginnings...

lovely surprises to find popping their heads up in the garden!

I am in awe of natures beauty,

and enjoy capturing it with my art.

"Just living is not enough...
One must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
Hans Christian Andersen

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New floral dish designs created

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with inspiration coming from the floral bursts of color

popping up in my cottage garden

I am truly blessed to have the gift of being able to create my own dishes!

Kauai

Kauai is known as “The Garden Isle”

for its tropical rain forests,

fertile valleys and lush abundance of flora.

The island seems to be teeming

with numerous varieties of exotic flowers and plants

the showy red ginger, the magnificent torch ginger,

sensational birds of paradise, sweet smelling plumeria

and hundreds of species of orchids,

and an endless supply of vibrantly colored hibiscus varieties.

Kauai is like a gigantic tropical botanical garden

with inspiration everywhere you look !

Take time to play with your friends, nurture your heart and feed your soul.

Happy Summer !

A little back story.

A dear friend and fellow flower enthusiast that I have known since I was 17

lost her sweet husband suddenly 3 months ago.

In one of our late night conversations

she mentioned that she always wanted to go to Hawaii.

I googled, I researched and within 2 weeks we were " living the dream ".

We spent one sweet week together in gratitude and friendship.

Magenta and yellow color scheme

this is how one thing can lead to another...

beginning with these beauties found in the garden

and natures color scheme

add in miscellaneous found scattered about the studio

next thing you know the lid to one of my bisque boxes is being decoupaged

using the graphics from a decorative napkin torn to size

with a little watercolor painting added to accentuate the pink

& complete the look

more about playing with napkins on bisqueware here

Spreading a little sunshine

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another ceramic creation completed

inspired by nature

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gifts from the garden

a large oval lemon platter

the lemons are profuse this year

here is a glimpse of what is growing in my garden in January

the camellias are full of blossoms,

the narcissus are popping their heads up and blooming,

and the English primrose plants bring bright spots of color into all the greenery

( I am loving this color combination of magenta, white and yellow )

white hydrangeas, orchids, Cleopatra white camellia,

English primrose and narcissus

& more English primrose

and a very happy white azalea topiary tree

{ for all the friends in cold climates I decided to add a few snaps

of some of the pretties blooming at Summerland Cottage this time of year }

Holiday Hydrangeas

Judith from Lavender Cottage left a sweet comment 

and I popped over to view her world.

This is her photo with the caption...

"The Annabelle hydrangea flowers that are now a crispy parchment colour

have pretty ice crystals covering them. "

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OMGoodness, I LoVed the photo of her hydrangea with ice crystals!

I'm so inspired to play with glitter on the ones in my garden.

so I began with this one...

then I clipped one that was just beginning to fade...

and yet another that I lightly sprayed with white Krylon paint then glittered

here is a view of all 3

hmmm.... what to do with the new beauties?

a holiday door garland!

Thank you Judith for the inspiration.

Rachel's persimmons and blue willow jug

Rachel is an accomplished artist living here in Laguna Beach

she works full time on her oil paintings and

many are done plein air as our weather is usually fab.

When it's not, she has a wonderful large studio on the lower level of her

home overlooking her amazing yard and gardens, to play in.

Treasuring the simple joys in life, I have learned to make an appointment for creative play time, so when she phoned last week inviting me over that is what I did,

and it was so worth it.

This photo is of the still life we reassembled in her studio today to paint from.

The persimmons picked right out of her yard, styled with her vintage ceramics,

and the old tapestry rug with its underside as a backdrop.

I love the old world feel.

I'm disappointed I wasn't able to capture that feeling,

a little rusty, but I had fun playing in oils again.

Besides the catch up conversation and camaraderie,

& delicious picnic lunch shared in the gazebo

the added bonus was this beauty that she sent home with me...

one of her original oils recently completed !

She'll be by next week to peruse my studio and select a few lovelies

to take home for herself.

Bartering with fellow artists is so much fun!