Japanese Tea Garden

We went to the Japanese Tea Garden on Friday.  What a beautiful day for it. Here is a sketch from the Wisteria Arbor looking toward the pond.

Snow Day in Seattle

Japanese Tea Garden Gate on a Snowy Day in Seattle

It is frigidly cold, snowy but bright.  Of course when we get snow in Seattle,  everything basically shuts down.  With all the hills around here very few attempt their normal routine.  So this was my snow day...I took a walk to the Arboreteum Japanese Tea Garden thinking it would be open to see it in snow...but of course it was closed!  I decided to paint the entry anyway.  Tricky painting snow.  Basically you leave it white and paint the blue shadows...but you have to have the right blue.  I wasn't too happy with the blue I chose.  What was interesting was doing water color when the temperature is below freezing.  The watercolor would ice up as soon as I laid it down on the paper.  So I literally had a glaze.  When I tried to lay it down a second time without dipping the brush in water, the brush would get stiff. 

Power Outage

No electricity today.  Seattle City Light was working on replacing a telephone pole in our neighborhood so I was without power for 4 hours.  Couldn't work so I went to the Japanese Tea Garden to sketch and paint.

Fall Starting to Show at Japanese Tea Garden

This time of year, if you have a nice clear sunny day take advantage of it.  Who knows when the next sunny day will be in Seattle.  Sunday, I took the opportunity to go to the Japanese Tea Garden.  To my surprise so did a lot of other people.  There was a special drumming exhibition, bonsai exhibit and Ikebana exhibit as well as a traveling photography exhibit.  The trees are just starting to change colors.  So in the next few weeks, as it gets colder, we will really start seeing a change.  The Arboreteum and Japanese Tea Garden will be beautiful in all its Fall Glory!

Japanese Tea Garden

Second attempt at drawing inside the Japanese Tea Garden.  Getting depth and reflection, drawing the landscape with out having a mish-mosh is hard to do.  Practice, practice and you learn something new.

Japanese Tea Garden

Thursday some students from the UW and I went to the Japanese Tea Garden to sketch.
It was a challenge to sketch landscape instead of building and urban spaces. I will have to try that more.