Gustavian is Swedish with a French influence, which began when
King Gustav III started hanging out in France with King Louis XIV.
Gustav went home and copied Louis but put the Swedish spin on things.
Hence "Gustvian" style was born.
I gravitate towards the Gustavian color palette of pale blue, white, grey
and cream and decided to paint some landscape scenes on the panels of the
small secretary desk, that would capture the essence of Gustavian style.
Pastoral scenery is so serene and pretty and I have been
doing a series of pieces with these types of landscapes,
the secretary is the latest in my "Gustavian phase".
Each drawer has raised borders and I painted landscapes inside
each one, followed by gilding the raised part.
I painted a French Maison on the drop leaf as a nod to
my Petite French Maison Dollhouse.
I used the gold color wax by Jolie Paint, and it highlighted the scenes nicely. The scenes were painted with many of the colors from Jolie Paint's serenity collection.
This is before gilding. I was torn about whether or not
to add the gilding, because this looked more like a simple
country look which was pretty too.
It came out beautifully and adds to the room.
Oh, and did you notice the lilac colored sofa with fringe?
It is a Scalamandre sofa. I lucked out at an estate sale and I love this thing!
These sofas run in the thousands, and that is out of my budget,
so thank heavens for estate sales and other people with great taste!
It looks pretty with all of my purple transfer ware,
including the lamps that I have in this room.
Off in the dining room you can see some of the other pieces in the
Gustavian series that I have created. And there will be more to come,
because that is how it goes when I get obsessed by something.
A pastoral landscape I painted is seen in this photograph featured in Romantic Country
magazine, Spring 2017 issue. I don't think I have shared many of the paintings I created.
So lets have a look at them, shall we?
Pastoral landscape paintings are soothing and restful. When I decorated
my home office I decided to paint some landscapes on the wall instead of
hanging up artwork. I framed them out with an exterior border so it looked
like a piece of artwork, and then I painted the interior area with various
landscape scenes that conjured up the European countryside.
These were the first paintings I created and I absolutely loved them.
I made a mini movie in time lapse photography on how I created this painting,
and its on my Facebook page for those interested to see more of the process.
(Find my Facebook link on the sidebar of my blog)
They were such fun to create, so I ended up painting three for the walls in my office.
This was the staging area, where I covered the sideboard with a drop cloth and just added all the paint I owned. I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint to do these scenes, and lots of water and different size brushes to get the paint to flow. I also used rags to create a mood on the borders.
Matthew Mead photographed the office for Where Women Create magazine in 2017.
You can see how the two landscapes anchor the back wall, creating a focal point behind my desk.
This was my favorite landscape painting. I added a small building to the landscape,
trying to simulate a structure I saw at Versailles, in Marie Antoinette's Petite Trianon.
Belvedere I believe it was called. Not exactly the same, but my interpretation.
These were all in the WWC magazine last year.
Now this room has been repurposed as a guest bedroom.
But I may be taking it back as my office this year as I miss the space.
This was a painting I did directly over another store bought painting, and it fit my living room so well. One nice thing about painting pastorals is that they seem to fit any space, and you can add the colors that work well with your palette. Imagine a pink sky if you had a lot of pink in your room.
Here it is in progress, I start by doing the background with the horizon line separating the blue and the green. Then I build in the trees and highlight with light and dark shading. If I wanted to add some lilac or pink to the sky, you can imagine how different you can make the painting look just by doing that.
This large canvas was a fun painting project but a challenge. I had to paint it outside. Because it required so much paint, I used various paints, many of which were wall paints for the house.
Doing that also kept the colors within the palette I have going on in my home.
This huge canvas actually hides a door we don't use.
The room used to be so awkward, and this large painting served to make
the room pretty and eliminate that door! Art with a purpose!
Most recently I painted a pastoral scene inside of my white piano.
After painting the exterior to look like blue and white toile,
the idea came to me to put a landscape inside.
I have a feeling I will be painting more pastorals.
You might want to give them a try yourself.
creating your own artwork is very satisfying.
Look at how different the piano looks from plain white.
I even did a mini landscape on the music stand in the front of the piano!
Last post I showed off how I painted the exterior of the piano with stamps and a pattern to give it a toile effect. But I still was unsure how I wanted to finish the interior to give it even more of a French look. I had a few days in a row off from watching baby Reeve, and I decided to tackle the piano. The thought of putting a pastoral landscape for the interior came to me as I went to sleep that night, as often many creative ideas do. The next morning I got up and took the piano lid off its hinges and started to paint a landscape similar to the few that I have been painting around our home.
This pastoral landscape, my largest, was painted on a big canvas.
Searching for the landscapes that I have painted to show you, I realize I
may not have posted on them at all, so look for that post shortly.
Back to the piano...
I unloaded the cans of Annie Sloan paint I had and started to paint a scene
from my imagination. After painting the landscape, I brushed white paint
over the whole thing to give it a dreamy look.
The painting took me about four hours and I was thrilled with the results.
It was soft and elegant and old looking, something out of an old painting from
the French countryside. It is really pretty now that it is all finished!
I wasn't sure if I should gild the edges, but for now I don't feel it....
and I always say: Doubt means Don't. At least for now.
My life is more balanced towards a family life these days, and when I get a chance
to do something creative its all the more enjoyable and special.
Reeve is nine months old and is such a JOY!
The weather has just started to creep into the fifties in Boston, and you can see the baby
carriage in the dining room all ready for afternoon walks with Piper.
Piper and Reeve are such a great pair!
They both look forward to being together, and they are side by side most of the day.
Piper is so gentle, and its true that Goldens are great with kids!
Its been a week full of personal inspiration, one I won't forget.
The beginning of the week had me making the decision to create some
landscape mural paintings in my home office/studio. Mind you I have never painted
scenes or anything before (besides furniture and some decorative wall panels I did for
my shop two years ago). But I was carrying the inspiration of Jennifer Lanne's artistic
style, particularly some chairs she did at the commission of designer Sandra Kelley.
I saw these french chairs with landscapes painted on the backs and I just fell head over
heels in love. Jennifer also painted some large landscapes on tarps for Sandra that were
beautiful and restful. They were the inspiration for my modest panels and I hoped to achieve
the romantic look that embodied them.
This photo was Sandra Kelly's Brimfield booth, which was happily located in
the same field that our booth was stationed. It was a delight to stumble upon her
booth and see the chairs that before I had only seen when I discovered them a year
or so ago on Facebook. The landscapes are so dreamy and magical, aren't they?
The artist, Jennifer Lanne, paints with a bold and colorful style, and Sandra had
her create these in the neutral Swedish palette that she loves. I LOVE them!
The best thing was that if I didn't achieve what I wanted I knew I could
always paint over it...hah! So my point is, put your fear to the side and just
have fun and be loose and paint. I wanted my room to be full of these dreamy
landscapes, and after creating a pair of them on the back wall, I decided to
try my hand at a Versailles-like scene, based upon our visit there in 2014.
There were many enchanting garden buildings, and this one is loosely based on the Belvedere.
My choice of paint was what was in my stash, which is a boat load of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. To that I added water to keep it loose and flowing. I tried to never get nervous when I wasn't loving what was happening on my "canvas". In the end, I think they came out marvelous!
Using my favorite Versailles coffee table book as a reference,
I could find landscapes and buildings and classical notes to add to my paintings.
It feels amazing when I walk into my office space now....
so if you are inspired by something, don't overlook a way to bring it
to life inside of your own home.
The next day I would travel to a friend's home for an alfresco lunch.
Kaydee and I met in my shops, she was a frequent customer and it was clear
we both liked the same things. We both would find inspiration in so many of
the same things, and our talk turned to gardens. I have been working on my courtyard,
and Kaydee invited me to tour her garden and so I did.
She had this charming menu board set up in her dining room, and it was the sweetest thing!
Her use of color (especially my favorite lilac) was inspiring, and her home
is filled with her own personal style, which I would say is a cross of Boho
and Cottage style. It is such fun to see a home with style! By the way,
Matthew Mead and I are on a personal style kick~helping people determine
their own style and make strides to getting the look that they love. So this visit tied
into what I am really all about at the moment. Discovering Personal Style.
We enjoyed a laid back lunch in the garden, and I was blown away by how many containers and beds Kaydee has growing in her yard. Tomatoes, potatoes, lettuces, herbs, peppers, beans, and a host of flowers~all grown from seed in the late winter!! I felt like an underachiever hahah!! Her mom,
Barbara, joined us with her homemade Strawberry Lemonade. It was a delightful day.
The next day was big doings...I would be joining Matthew Mead on a magazine shoot. Who is more creative and inspiring than this guy? No one!
As it seems in my life anyways, all points get connected. This shoot was at
the country home of designer Sandra Kelly. Yes. That Sandra Kelly.
The one whose booth I ADORED in Brimfield. The one whose commissioned
chairs and landscapes had so inspired me....well it turns out Matthew had arranged
for shooting her home for his new magazine, and I couldn't have been more excited.
How fun would it be to shoot a video of Matthew shooting a home? In my world,
its very fun, especially when its a Swedish style home with the color palette I love.
Photo by Matthew Mead
I videotaped him shooting a bit of the house, and we also did a video segment
interviewing the designer about her own personal style.
Photo by Matthew Mead
And there are those amazing chairs!
I hope you find some inspiration checking out Sandra's home
on the 3 mintue video link above. My cup runneth over with inspiration this
week, both in fulfilling it and finding it in unexpected places.
How wonderful it all was.
Next week, Matthew will be heading to my home to shoot my office, so
I better hurry up and finish the rest of my walls....!!
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