Love My Little Cottage

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Garden Gnome Painting-Cottage Garden Series #1

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Garden Gnome Painting
Garden Gnome Painting

Spring 2021 is coming! I think we all need some rejuvination this year. In celebration of this very special season, I’ve begun the Cottage Garden painting series. The Garden Gnome Painting is the very first in the series. He is at his perch on the toadstool, ready and able to welcome everyone in all types of weather conditions. South Carolina Lowcountry springs can be iffy. Here on the coast we’ll definitely get a lot of rain. Temperates are so variant here that you can go from freezing to death to hot and sweaty- all in the same week.

I’m doing the 100 Day Painting Challenge with a friend of mine, so we’ll see how far I can take the kitsch garden theme. The goal is to paint (or draw or sew or whatever your interest is) for 100 consecutive days. The process is supposed to unleash all of your pent-up creativity. We’re going to paint five days a week for twenty weeks, with weekends off. Challenge accepted!

My inspiration came from my own yard. I combined ideas from two different photographs for my painting sketch.
I painted the wood panel gray, then taped of each section of the background and applied the basecoat. Since I’m upping my game, I used artist-quality acrylics this time. The paint is thicker and the pigment is much more vivid.
The background was time consuming. I couldn’t wait to get to the fun part- the gnome and the Christmas cactus.
First, I applied the base colors to the upper half of the gnome and the flower pot.
Next, I swished in the dirt and grass. I wanted the yard to look realistic, with grass coming in spurts as the springtime rain and sunshine awakened it from winter dormancy.
The weathered details on the garden gnome were glorious. I enjoyed adding the blue patina to this time-worn yard ornament.
Flowers and other vegetation provided the finishing touches. In this case, art imitated life. Little sprigs of grass (or maybe they are weeds) were already growing against the side of the house and the Christmas cactus was still bloming.
  • Garden Gnome Painting
He’s all done!
Garden Gnome Painting
I’ll be searching high and low for more cottage garden kitsch inspiration during the next few months.
I hope you enjoyed my Garden Gnome Painting!

Happy Spring,

Kristie

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Comments

    • Kristie Schubert says

      Thanks, Alexandra. I’ll be looking for flamingos and wind chimes and other colorful items on the southern landscape!

      Reply

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