What a Difference a Day Makes

 With recent temps around 60 degrees I'd been planning to get out in the garden an do some transplanting. Imagine my surprise when I woke up to snow! I took these photos about 10:00 AM.

It, of course changed my plans a bit but was a pleasant day all the same.

You have to love weather in Minnesota, the snow had gone again by 2:00 PM

I have another painted post ready to add to the ramp and have been busy painting 2 more.

One of the reasons for painting all of the posts differently is so that I can use it as a reference when trying to choose the best color combinations to use for various designs. Another of course is so that when people ask me what sorts of things I paint I can merely point them to the ramp instead of having to launch into long discussions or descriptions. There are a lot of reasons for doing this project but of course best of all, it makes everyone smile and makes me happy.

A Post about Posts

We continue to work on the wheelchair ramp by bringing in one post at a time and painting it.

There's no plan to what I'm painting of them. I'm just more or less playing around with random colors and patterns. It's a good way to relax and unwind.

I love to look out the window and see the bright colors against the snow.

It's quite a sight, isn't it?

Painting Flowers in the Garden and the wheelchair ramp

I thought I'd add a few daisies to the wheelchair ramp. It really shows up great in the shady corner of the front garden.

The wheelchair ramp takes up so much of the front yard that there were only 2 choices possible...or at least I thought so. I figured I either had to paint it to blend in or decide to make it a feature.

What I ultimately decided on was to do a bit of both. The spindles are bright bits of art decorated with some of the flowers that  I grow here in the garden and I'll be staining the top and bottom rails as well the 4x4 posts to match the house.

What's next? Kicking things up a notch with brighter colors and a blast from the past that celebrates my World Chair Design that was published in a magazine years ago.

What I'm really enjoying about this project is that it celebrates both where I've been and where I'm going while making my home a lot more fun to be around.

Sunflower Birdhouse

Here is the birdhouse finished and installed on the side of my wheelchair ramp.

 Before

After

In this photo you can see the contrast between the base coated  flowers and the shaded ones. After this I went through and added black outlines and accent stroked before installing it in place.

I enjoy painting outdoors the best. Minnesota weather is quite changeable so I don't get as much time out there as I would like.

Update on the Garden and Patio Area so far. Junk Sculpture,Salvage and Recycling

 Hello there! I'll bet you've been wondering what's going on around here...besides trying to keep the squirrels from eating all of my strawberries.

I retouched the paint on that junk sculpture trellis but decided it was just too boring so I grabbed my paints and kicked the color up a notch.

My favorite change was turning the large flowers into sunflowers. Making the other flowers red and painting some vines on the frame seems to have helped a lot. My next plan is to make the birds a bright blue and maybe even the trim on the birdhouse to bring the color all of the way through.

It's still slow going with the wheelchair and the lack of money but it's turning into a more comfortable and happy space all of the time.

The next phase of the project will be to retouch the paint on the patio furniture.
what colors are still yet to be determined but salvage efforts have turned up some cans of primer and a bit of green paint so far.

Wheelchair Ramp Garden Art

A couple of inches of the top and bottom horizontals will be painted black with a white dot trim to "stitch" it together with the other work that I've done over the years.

The rest of the horizontals are free space for anyone that comes here to express their creativity on. 

I'm hoping to make it a creative hub in the neighborhood and let everyone have fun with it.

An Artist's Life and Projects

An artist's life and projects intertwine in ways that most people don't really understand. How do we make or choices? Why do we pick a certain media or subject? What drives us? Well there as many different answers as there are Artist's or craftspeople.

In most circles what I'm doing with the wheelchair ramp would be considered more craft than art. I don't really care what people call it as long as it makes them smile.

My reason for painting it is to protect it and make it last longer. My reason for painting it so many different ways is to help me work out different design ideas and color combinations that I use on other projects.

The main thing I do with some of these ideas is paint Swedish Dala Horses which is what I enjoy doing when I'm not caught up in easel painting abstracts or florals.

Two Good Reasons for Art in the Garden

The first and most important reason to include art in your garden is that you only have fruit, veg and flowers to brighten it up part of the year and you'll want color all year around.

Clay pots are a cheap and easy way to get started and even old ones can be brought back to life with paint. The rim on this one was a great place to practice a border that I've been wanting to teach myself. This one didn't turn out very well but the plants won't mind.

I need a lot more practice on this design so I've gone back to painting the spindles on my wheelchair ramp to keep at it until I get it right.

I kind of like my second attempt better but I've got a long way to go before they come out like that clipping that I've been saving all of these years.

Next time I'll try it with colors used in the clipping instead of using up the stuff that I've got on hand.

Fun with Paint in the Yard and Garden