When you love art, it tends to extend to the yard and garden also. There are so many ways to include art outside. I guess one of my first outside art projects was painting a deer on my fence in New York. The deer were frequent visitors and diners in my garden, so it just made sense for a deer to be a permanent fixture in the yard. The rough texture of the fencing is a challenge-I used acrylic paints and it is time consuming due to the porous and rough texture (and wears out the brushes), but worth it when you are done!
Another one of my favorite ways to bring art outside is painting on old windows with outdoor acrylic paints- "glossies". My husband would love it if I didn't save all of these items, like old windows, until I found a use for them! These paintings can be amazingly durable, even with sprinklers and winter weather (snow and ice) abusing the painted surface. Eventually, they start to show their age, but you can just scrape off the old paint and start over on a new one.
I enjoy mosaics and mosaic is a perfect outdoor element. I did a table top - Mermaid- and she took many different sessions with all the breaking tile, gluing and grouting. The birdbath is a concrete birdbath from Home Depot underneath.
When we moved back to California and bought a new house, we had an empty dirt area to start with. We had stamped concrete poured for walkways, and patios. Another painting surface! I like to use garden and art quotations outside. Outdoor acrylic paints again.
It has been so hot outside lately, that I have been really slacking on the yard work. I spend less time in my garden when the temps hit the 100's- A/C wins over weeding and pruning. Having a sprinkler system almost makes it possible to totally ignore the garden, but there are the many pots scattered around that need watering. When I was outside watering pots yesterday, I took photos of some of my garden art- then hurried back inside to the A/C!
Thanks for looking!
Sheryl
