The Best Approach to Painted Flower Borders

There are a number of approaches to any design. Even something as simple as a white flower or a daisy.

I found a variation of this design in a  Scandinavian pattern book. It had red flowers so considering the background color I was using I thought I'd try white.

This time I decided to just freehand some leaves and vines to drop the flowers into.

I also decided to try different lengths and numbers of petals on the flowers.

Next I tried combining them with other flowers to see how that would work. That's the beauty of painting the posts on the wheelchair ramp. I've got dozens of different surfaces to practice on and it's been quite a conversation starter in the neighborhood.

Surprising Places to Practice Brushstrokes

One way to pass a boring winter is to remove the spindles on a ramp or deck one at a time and bring them indoors to paint on.

The design on this red one is 4 different variations of a pattern that I was trying to decide on for a Dala Horse. I needed to practice the brushstrokes and this project gave me a lot of that.

The other advantage of this project is that it's a showcase for all of the different ways that I like to paint and provides handy examples when I'm hosting events or giving painting classes.

It also brightens up the winter and entertains my neighbors.