By: Jennifer Prevost
6 minute read
1166 words
Every summer, without question, I feel it: the pull back to one of my most beloved subjects — the garden. Something about this season urges me to return to the easel with a palette full of colour and an open heart. Gardens, to me, are more than nature—they are movement, rhythm, and emotion. They are bursts of colour relationships you simply can’t find anywhere else in the natural world. There’s a harmony in the chaos, a dance in the repetition of shape and hue, a kind of music that plays between petals and leaves. I try to capture that music in paint. These works are meant to lift your spirits. I truly believe colour can be a healing force — one that fills us with energy, enthusiasm, and joy.
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Step into a world of colour and movement with my Garden Studies series — a vibrant collection of oil paintings inspired by the joy, rhythm, and wild beauty of blooming gardens. Each piece captures the emotional energy of nature at its peak. Explore the Garden Studies collection
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The Garden Studies Collection: A Growing Tradition
I began the Garden Studies series in 2024 as a personal exploration of the garden as both subject and symbol. I wrote about this in my blog, “The Garden as a Canvas”, where I shared how gardens became a space for both reflection and celebration. They symbolize growth, care, and transformation.
This summer, I’ve returned to the series with renewed energy. I’ve committed to painting ten new Garden Studies in 2025, each one a limited addition to the ongoing series. So far, four are complete. Let me walk you through each of them — and offer you a closer look at my most beloved subject.
Inspired by Bold Lines & Blooming Colour
The Garden Studies series is deeply influenced by my love of Japanese woodblock prints, known as ukiyo-e. These prints often feature stylized florals with strong outlines, flat planes of colour, and rhythmic composition — qualities that resonate deeply with my own artistic approach. I’m especially inspired by the way ukiyo-e artists distilled the essence of nature into bold, elegant forms.
Peonies, a recurring motif in these prints, symbolize prosperity, romance, and beauty. During the Edo period, they were often depicted in vibrant, detailed settings — from lush gardens to quiet interiors. One of my favourite examples is Utagawa Hiroshige’s Peonies and Butterfly, where colour, pattern, and symbolism come together in perfect harmony. In my own work, I strive to capture that same reverence for floral beauty — giving each bloom space to breathe while celebrating its expressive energy.
This series is also shaped by the floral paintings of Vincent van Gogh. I’ve long admired his fearless brushwork, his vibrant palette, and his ability to imbue flowers with emotion and movement. Like van Gogh, I want my flowers to feel alive — not still, but stirring. Reaching. Blooming. Together, these influences help me explore that delicate balance between structure and spontaneity, design and wildness — the very essence of a garden in full bloom.
Deep Dive into Selected Works
Garden Study 9: Wild Rhythm
A wild garden in full bloom—poppies and cornflowers burst in a joyful array of colour beneath a bright blue sky. The wind stirs the grass, creating flowing patterns and bringing the scene to life. I painted this piece with sweeping, gestural brushstrokes to suggest motion, vitality, and freedom. The bright, cheery palette reflects the height of summer. The trailing flowers hint at distance and echo, pulling the viewer into a rhythm that feels almost musical. A single tree bends and sways, as if dancing to the wind’s invisible tempo.
Garden Study 10: Golden Hour
Bathed in golden hour light, this painting glows with warmth and nostalgia. A winding path of pebbles leads the viewer through beds of poppies, chrysanthemums, daisies, and more—each bloom illuminated by the last rays of the sun. Jewel-toned flowers lean gently toward the fading light, their shadows deepening into rich contrast. The palette blends mauves, purples, peach, and soft turquoise to capture a moment that feels fleeting and sacred. This is the garden just before twilight — still alive with colour, but beginning to exhale into rest.
Garden Study 11: In Bloom
This is a painting about abundance. About that feeling of being completely surrounded by life. You’re standing at the base of a densely planted bed — marigolds, cosmos, foxgloves, cornflowers, echinacea, chrysanthemums — all bursting with shape, texture, and energy. I used a range of expressive brushstrokes to create interest and a sense of spontaneity. Each bloom has its own voice, yet together they create a unified, harmonious whole. It’s a celebration of difference, of variety, of nature’s vibrant complexity.
Garden Study 12: The Heart of the Garden
This is my most ambitious Garden Study to date — and one of my personal favourites.
At the heart of this piece are bold, vibrant poppies, their red-orange petals catching the light and guiding the eye upward and inward. In the language of flowers, poppies symbolize remembrance, resilience, and beauty in adversity — all themes I carried with me as I painted. Beneath them, wild chicory (a symbol of perseverance and open-heartedness) peeks through, anchoring the lower half of the composition with its cool, delicate blue.
The swirling black-eyed Susans suggest motion — they twist and turn as if caught in the wind. These bright yellow blooms often symbolize encouragement and justice, and they bring warmth and brightness to the overall palette.
Look closer, and you’ll find surprises — tiny clover leaves peeking through, a few delicate peonies reaching skyward (symbols of love and compassion), and tiger lilies stretching confidently into the light. The distant hills roll gently into the horizon, with trees leaning as if whispering secrets to the wind.
This painting is full of movement, full of life. My goal was to create a layered experience — something that reveals more with time, a world that unfolds with each viewing. It’s a piece meant for quiet contemplation, and for joy.
What Comes Next
There are six more paintings still to come in this year’s Garden Studies series — each one a continuation of this joyful and colour-rich journey. As always, this is a limited series, and I welcome you to experience the works in person if you’re in the Ottawa area.
Viewings are available by appointment — simply reach out to me at jennifer.prevost0@gmail.com.
Or, visit me at my next outdoor art show at the Carleton Place Riverfront Artscape, where I’ll be showcasing the Garden Studies series along with other Ottawa-inspired works.
Thank you for following along — I hope these paintings bring a little more colour, light, and peace into your world.
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