The artists’ gardens were much more than a space to rest, they became outdoor workshops, places of experimentation and settings where his works began to germinate before reaching the canvas.

Claude Monet and the garden as a chromatic canvas

Creative Commons

In the gardens of Giverny (pictured left), Claude Monet designed authentic “outdoor paintings.” He planted thousands of flowers, lilies, dahlias, chrysanthemums and, of course, water lilies, flowers combined without hierarchy, like paint stains scattered in groups, just as he often depicted nature in his paintings.

His Japanese bridge pond and imported Asian plants were part of his visual laboratory, direct source of inspiration for his most famous series.

This style of garden, with “islands” of contrasting colors and informal floral borders, is replicated today in gardens inspired by Monet, where the focus is on experiment with tones and textures, similar to how a painter organizes his palette.

Frida Kahlo, a garden as autobiography

Fridakahlo.org

The garden of the Casa Azul, in Coyoacán (Mexico), which is currently a beautiful museum (in the photo) dedicated to the brilliant painter, was an essential part of Frida’s intimate universe.

There he grew dahlias, bougainvilleas, cactus, sunflowers, cacti and flowers that brought his imagination to the earth. That patio was not just a decorative space, It was a refuge and an emotional mirror, an extension of his body and work.

The use of native plants and bright colors, cobalt blue, blood red, yellow, he dialogued with his self-portraits and his suits. In that garden, Frida planted with memory, tenderness and rebellion, as if each petal of each flower weaved its vitalist narrative.

Georgia O’Keeffe and the spiritual dimension of the desert

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

In Abiquiú (New Mexico), Georgia O’Keeffe designed an austere and authentic garden, composed of yuccas, cacti, sunflowers, pumpkins, corn and native vegetation that grew without pretensions, reflecting the earth and the arid spirit of its surroundings.

His approach was practical and spiritual, so he turned to resistant plants that survived the sun, to the wind and abandonment, but which, in his eyes, were monuments of beauty. In the garden of «the woman who painted America», found objects coexisted, arranged with sobriety and tenderness.

Piet Mondrian, from the garden to geometric art

Mondriaanhuis.org

Although Mondrian rarely depicted gardens in his paintings, his fascination with the details in the plant structures It was decisive in the construction of his pictorial imagination.

In Amersfoort, in Holland, he lived surrounded by gardens from which he studied branches, patterns and ramifications. That underlying geometry, rhythms, bifurcations and symmetries, was later transferred to his abstract painting, where The lines and colors behave like branches translated into the language of art.

Its geometric designs absorbed the natural logic of the trees, revealing the vegetal essence from abstraction.

Other views: Sorolla, Jacques Majorelle, Emil Nolde and van Gogh

In addition to big names like Monet, Frida or Georgia O’Keeffe, other painters also found in plants a parallel language to the brushes.

Joaquín Sorolla, For example, on numerous occasions he portrayed the gardens of his house in Madrid, which he himself designed inspired by the Andalusian patios and the Alhambra in Granada.

The orange trees, rose bushes and boxwood beds They became recurring scenes in his canvases full of Mediterranean light.

In Marrakesh, Jacques Majorelle designed his garden with more than 300 exotic species and a vibrant Art Deco aesthetic.

The iconic Majorelle blue was the framework for unique plants such as agaves and black bamboo, created as a garden and a work of art at the same time.

In Germany, Emil Nolde He cultivated a garden in Seebüll, where he planted red poppies, sunflowers and white lilies.

He formed paths in the shape of his initials, with plants that, as he said, “they attracted him magnetically.” His garden was a space as personal as his canvases.

Vincent van Gogh, For his part, he was deeply moved by the sunflowers, which he grew and painted obsessively.

In his letters to his brother Theo he reflects how nature, orchards and flower fields were an essential part of his creative process.

This link between art and botany demonstrates that gardens were not simple decorations, but authentic sources of inspiration that artists used as living and changing palettes.

Create your own inspiration space

Get inspired so that your own garden reflects your sensitivity, choose plants that, as in these examples, talk about what you are, Colors that catch your eye, shapes that move you, patterns that calm your mind.

You don’t need much space, a pot with a simple flower, chosen with intention, it can become a living narrative. Make each bud tell your story.