From Garden Inspiration to Art: The Making of a New Fall Pattern

The trip to the botanical gardens last month was so inspiring, I couldn't wait to get back to my studio. Since you aren't allowed to pick the beautiful blooms there, I stopped on my way home and picked up a fresh bouquet for my art table.

These sunflowers, zinnias, and coleus' vibrant fall colors just begged to be captured in art.

That evening, I decided to turn them into a pattern.

The Designer’s Process: Color and Detail

My medium of choice for this piece was watercolor, allowing me to achieve that rich, translucent texture that feels so organic. The first step in any pattern design is getting the colors right. I spent time mixing and swatching until I had the perfect shades—from the deep, moody plums of the coleus leaves to the sun-kissed golds of the sunflowers. This critical step ensures the final digital prints retain the vibrancy and depth of the original artwork.

​Next, I meticulously painted each floral element individually. This is a common practice in surface design because it gives me complete control over the final arrangement. With each motif separated, the opportunities for different pattern layouts are truly endless.

The Art of Arrangement

Once the paint was dry, I scanned the images into my computer. This is where the magic of digital design begins! Using Photoshop, I was able to play with the scale, color, and density to devise a variety of looks.
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Here are three different pattern variations I created based on the flowers I painted that evening:

• Dense All-Over Repeat: (Far left top image) This variation features a tight, repeating geometric arrangement of the sunflowers and plum-colored coleus. It's the perfect choice for a bold statement wallpaper or a lively kitchen curtain that brings high energy to a space.

• Wreath Medallion Repeat: (Top right image) By arranging the flowers in a circular formation, this design creates a beautiful, balanced medallion effect. This sophisticated layout is ideal for accent pieces like throw pillows, tapestries, or as a central detail on bedding.

• Spacious Diamond Layout: (Bottom left image) This pattern uses the motifs to create a more open, airy diamond repeat. The negative space allows the deep navy background to shine, lending a classic, tailored feel that would look stunning on a traditional accent wall or a high-end duvet cover.

Be on the lookout for these, or other patterns using these same beautiful motifs, coming soon to my store on products like bedding and wallpaper!

Bringing the Botanical Beauty Home: Color and Texture from a Day Trip

I'm in the process of building new design collections for my portfolio. To get started on the planning, I decided I needed some fresh inspiration, so a few weeks ago I played tourist in my own city and took a trip to the local Botanical Gardens. What an adventure! The gardens are absolutely breathtaking in the early fall.

I arrived just as they opened on a quiet Friday morning to avoid the crowds. The sun was bright and the air, still a bit warm, carried the crisp scent of late September.

The Unexpected Palette of Shade

The initial stretch of the trail was a welcome relief, covered completely in shade. It was here that I discovered an unexpected bounty of color. I had no idea there were so many vibrant, shade-loving plants!

Several garden beds were overflowing with variations of the beautiful Coleus plant. Their leaves showcased rich, velvety burgundy fading into a bright, acidic lime green at the edges—a stunning color clash that somehow feels perfectly grounded and balanced.

This specific contrast between the deep and vivid color is exactly the kind of inspiration I’m excited to translate into home decor. I immediately pictured these designs becoming a luxurious bedspread, bold wallpaper, or a trailing curtain pattern.

A Symphony of Shape and Texture

As the path opened up, the air became thick with the buzz of pollinators in the butterfly garden. Everywhere I looked, I found incredible texture, shape, and vibrant color that begged to be immortalized on canvas or fabric.
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One plant, the Red Roselle, with its glossy, deep crimson pods, instantly reminded me of a classic, trailing wallpaper motif—organic yet tailored.

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Further along, the delicate, wispy white threads of the Cat’s Whiskers (pictured on the left, below) contrasted beautifully with the tight, jewel-toned globes of the Globe Amaranth (pictured right, below). Imagine a playful serpentine pattern mixing these two textures for a lively powder room wallpaper.
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The Grand Finale: Finding Serenity

The most surprising discovery of all had to be the stunning waterfall tucked away right in the middle of the city. Seeing the rushing, silvery white water cascade over the mossy, dark rocks was absolutely breathtaking. It provided a moment of calm and serenity, a quiet anchor to all the vibrant life I’d just experienced. This contrast between the bold energy of the flowers and the quiet power of the water is the core feeling I want to capture in my newest art.

What Will You Bring Home?

The best part of a day like this isn't just the memory—it's the fuel for creating a truly curated home. I've left the gardens with 250 pictures and an entirely new vision for color palettes and artistic textures that I know will resonate with your desire for timeless, inspired decor.

Keep reading this blog! In the next article, I'm peeling back the curtain to show you the botanical pattern directly inspired by this trip and how I'm developing it for print.

My 100-Day Project 2025

I DID IT! I completed the 100-Day Project this year! In case you’re not aware, the 100-Day Project is a free global art project that thousands of people from all over the world participate in. It’s officially held in the spring, but many people do it at different times of the year.

My schedule didn’t allow for me to participate in the spring, so I decided to do mine over the course of the summer. I started the first of June and painted a small picture every day of a subject I’d never painted before. The goal was to learn to paint 100 new things by the end of the summer. For accountability, I also decided to post my paintings on social media every day. Not just the end result, but the actual act of painting. It wasn't the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it ranks up there as pretty challenging.

I planned the subjects for the first 30 days a week before the challenge started, then planned the remaining 70 days a week at a time. I did face a couple of obstacles, the biggest of which was time. My need to make sure I could paint the subject well, while filming and posting on social media, meant I needed to practice creating the painting at least once before filming it. During this process, I learned that creating content for social media is a very different skill. It was all new to me. I had to learn how to create and edit the video, add music, and figure out the formula that “the Algorithm” would grab hold of and distribute. I’m still not an expert, but I’ve learned a lot. My last few videos are certainly better than the first few.

Here is a photo collage of my Top 11 Paintings from the project, ranked by total Facebook and Instagram likes.

Here is a collage of My Favorites from the challenge:

After a bit of contemplation, I've identified a few takeaways from the whole process:

• I really like gouache and should use it more often. In case you’re not familiar with it, gouache is much like watercolor in that it can be reactivated with water after it dries. However, while watercolor is mainly transparent, gouache is very opaque. It’s smooth and creamy, like peanut butter. You can use it on top of watercolor without lifting the paint underneath and you can use it all by itself. It's pretty dreamy stuff.

• Fruit is very easy and quick to paint.

• Animals are harder to paint, but more fun and satisfying.

• Landscapes have never been my forte and still aren’t, so I’m determined to master them.

• I love painting patterns. "The Algorithm" doesn't like them as much as me, so I didn't paint very many in this project.

• I can’t paint with any one medium for too long before I get bored. I have to switch it up. In this challenge I used watercolor, gouache, acrylic paint. I also used India Ink brush pens, Posca markers, and and a few other types of media to create the paintings. And I created one double-spread page painting in collage. This is the flowers in the blue vase right above the Christmas Gnome. The collage turned out to be my absolute favorite of all.

Was it worth it? Yes. Will I do it again? Likely. Did I have fun? Absolutely!