Looking for Lavender Inspiration

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Welcome and thank you for stopping by. I am back from a painting vacation and would love to take you with me on a little tour to share with you the lavender inspirations I found for us to paint together. I am blessed to live in beautiful Southern California just several miles from the Pacific Ocean. We have mountains , lovely farm land , small lavender farms , and vineyards within a three hour drive from the coast. This year we decided to take advantage of our beautiful surroundings and find our inspirations to paint at our local flower and lavender farms.

Pour yourself a cool drink and let's go. First I need to pack my painting gear - my apron and hat are a necessity.

I wear gloves when painting outdoors to protect my hands from the sun and found the fun lavender rubber gloves at Debra's Cottage to add to my painting gear.
Throw in my paint brushes and off we go.
Well, before we get started I happened onto two white wicker chairs that were such a great deal I could not resist them. Bentley, my studio assistant, also went with us to look for inspiration.

On our way out of town our first stop is a slight detour to Balboa Island to show you this delightful and whimsical house with a crooked lavender fence and umbrella. The house even has a lavender clock in the garden surrounded by lavender hydrangeas.

OK, here we go!

Finding inspiration . . . . .

We found lots of beautiful flowers at the flower farm and nursery. Lovely lavender delphiniums.




A beautiful mixed bouquet.

A profusion of lavender flowers growing on a picket fence.




A lovely hanging basket filled with lavender and white flowers.



Lavender flowers with white daisies.


Here . . . . .



There . . . . .




Spanish Lavender


There . . . .




French Lavender



Everywhere . . . .



Lavender Sage




The wonderful road side stands selling fresh cut lavender inspired me to paint. I loved the stand with the yellow market umbrella and could not resist the delightful contrast of the yellow and lavender combination.






Roadside market.

Now, let's paint something together. I picked out lavender bouquets just for you to paint.




French Lavender Bouquet





Lavender Sage Bouquet




The buds on the Lavender Sage are larger and will be easier for you to paint. You are welcome to use either photo for your inspiration. Now let's get started. I am using an 8X10 canvas and base coated it with Naples Yellow and a little White. The Naples Yellow makes a very nice neutral background and looks wonderful with the lavender. My painting is a present for a friend who has a Country French kitchen and I decided to add "Herbs de Provence" to my painting.



First sketch your bouquet.

The colors I used are: dark purple, light violet, light blue violet, magenta, raw sienna, dark green, medium green and a green gray.

Next, paint in your darks - always paint from dark to light.


Now add a little touch of raw sienna and several shades of green for the stems. Lighten up the buds with lavender, blue violet and a touch of magenta and then add a little gray green to the entire bouquet. Note that I put dots of the gray green in between the buds. I always like to compare the painting to the inspiration.



Complete your bouquet and enjoy!

Thank you for visiting. I sincerely appreciate that you have taken the time to leave me a comment and to follow my blog. If you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special, please leave me a comment or send me an e-mail.

Have a lovely week. Blessings, Erin