Repurposing Seaside Cottage Garden Art

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Finding Inspiration . . . .

Here . . . . .

There . . . . .

Everywhere . . . . .

One of my personal goals for the year is to simplify and redecorate my home and studio using furniture and accessories (and art) that I already have. Since I am fortunate to live near the Newport Bay and Pacific Ocean I wanted to give my home an updated coastal feel at the same time keeping the cottage garden look I love. . . and at the same time . . . staying on a very tight budget. I had my sofa, side chair and ottoman slip covered in white cotton denim at a 30% off sale and moved furniture and accessories around from other rooms in my home. I added lots of blue sky and water to some of my existing paintings - and at the same time left the flowers to give them the new coastal cottage garden look.

Let's take a look around and I will show you what I have been up to!

In keeping with "it's not what you don't have - it's what you do with what you do with what you do have" philosophy of decorator and author Kitty Barhlomew - I decided to re purpose another one of my garden paintings to give it a coastal feel.

First, I painted out the white bistro chair and began painting in the blue sky and blue ocean.

I moved the yellow wicker chair from my office to the living room and wanted to add more yellow to the painting to pick up the color in the chair. I sketched in a white wicker chair using my own chair and throw cushions as inspiration.

I felt the floral design on my yellow pillow was too much and competed with the flowers on the table and also that the angle of the chair was not right.

I changed the angle of the chair and painted out the flowers on the pillow and painted the pillow a solid yellow.

I paint outside as weather permits so I can really see the colors in daylight. Now that the painting is complete - let's take it inside and hang it over the fire place to see how it looks.

Bentley, my Studio Assistant has been patiently waiting to get a first hand look!

Looks like Bentley approves and is waiting for our next project!

Thank you for visiting. I love to hear from you and it really means a lot to me that you have taken 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.

Wishing you and your family a joyous and blessed Easter and Passover season.

Blessings, Erin