Using Color in the Garden
Cottage Gardens
It all began as a Cutting Garden
I’ve always wanted a cutting garden - one designed for harvesting large bouquets and filling the house with color year-round. but I don’t want a farm-style with rows of the same flower set perfectly spaced. I’ve dreamed of a cottage-garden style with a profusion of messy blooms, vines climbing over arches and lavender spilling into the walkways.
So, I designed not just one, but multiple cottage gardens, poured through seed catalogs, nurtured little seedlings through the cold late-winter and early-spring, then tucked my plant babies into the rich soil I’d spent all winter building up.
The gardens filled in
Come late spring and I was rewarded for all my work. Each garden area bursting into color. Being a girl who loves ALL color, I had to create multiple gardens with different color themes and palettes.
One for each Color Goddess style, of course:
Bohemian Garden for deep, rich, saturated colors
Romantic Garden for the soft sorbet colors
Silver Garden for the soft cool earth-tones
Serenity Garden for soft, off-whites and greens
And the flowers were glorious! The colors working so beautifully together. And of course, inspiring me to paint in so many color palettes.
Bohemian Garden
deep, rich saturated color palette
This is my original Bohemian Garden (it has since moved to give way to my pond) along with some bright, saturated bouquets.
Colors carried into my Studio
How could I resist creating paintings inspired by these exotic colors? And of course a Nuno felt shawl as well:
‘Jewels Blooming In The Night Garden’ (36”H x 18”W)
‘Berry Blast’ Nuno Felt Shawl
‘Santiago’ (20”H x 18”W)
‘She Knows She’s A Goddess’ (30”H x 24”W)
Romantic Garden
Soft pastel, sorbet, dainty and feminine color palette
Carrying these gentle, sorbet colors into my artwork was pure joy! I especially love mixing a touch of green into orange for a soft, earthy undertone:
Under the Jacaranda (24”H x 24”W)
Spring Sunrise (36”H x 18”W)
Wake Up It’s A Beautiful Morning (24”H x 24”W)
Hope (30”H x 24”W)
I created both a scarf and shawl in the same colorway:
Spring Garden Scarf in the making
Silver Garden
soft earth-tone color palette with greyed-undertones
A bouquet for my aunt, who had the perfect vase for it:
I don’t normally grab these grey undertones, but am loving how they turned out in Nuno felt:
I create some paintings for a client whose colors of joy are the heathered grey undertones. She is a Master Colorist and her home feels like a very cozy, inviting art gallery. I’m honored that many of my paintings adorn her walls.
They Gather Under A Lavender Sky (24”H x 24”W)
Purple Haze (30”H x 24”W)
She Throws Seeds To The Wind (24”H x 24”W)
Dancing Into the Golden Hour (24”H x 24”W)
Copper Sky (24”H x 24”W)
Dance In The Golden Morning Mist (24”H x 24”W)
Serenity Garden
soft, off-white color palette
OK - I know I don’t normally do soft whites, but this is lovely
Bouquet of dahlias: Cafe au Lait, Labyrinth, My Love, Break Out, Sweet Nathalie, Henriette
This nuno felt shawl is double-sided (as all are) with whites and beige on one side and a splash of green on the other
Fawn Nuno Felt Shawl, side 1 and 2
I haven’t tried painting with shades of white. I guess I’m too much of a saturated color girl. But I have to say, when I’ve leaned into creamy-whites by desaturating my go-to colors, I do love the result:
Waterfall Bliss (20”H x 16”W)
Amazing Grey Poppy (36”H x 18”W)
White Mountain
A Touch of Moss (20”H x 16”W)
Last bouquet from my garden?
Alas… all those fabulous plans for cutting gardens? Turns out I’m allergic to the daisy family (almost* all of the flowers in my gardens) and can’t bring any of them into my house without succumbing to hay fever and asthma attacks.
* Yay! I’m not allergic to lilac, rose or hydrangea - so you better believe these beauties are my favorites!
No, I’m not really going to stop cutting bouquets—I’ll just have to give them away to friends and neighbors. Instead, I’ll look at the profusion of gorgeous color out in the garden and through my windows and bring the colors of my garden inside through my art.
