Bellevue Botanical Garden



8/23/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn sketchbook

Only three sketchers showed up for the Friday ad hoc gathering, so we rattled around in the spacious Bellevue Botanical Garden. Currently under major renovation to make it even larger, the BBG is deep and full of tall trees, making it seem more like an arboretum than a traditional garden.

 

Still at work on my latest sketching nemesis – fountains and other sources of streaming water – I first tackled a lovely series of waterfalls in the Yao Japanese Garden area, where the wide leaves of the Darmera Peltata opened like umbrellas beside the rocks.

 

8/23/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor

8/23/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor

Next I went up near the visitor’s center, where several bushes of Rosa Rugosa still had a few white blossoms that the bees were happy about. But most of the roses had already given way to red and orange rose hips as big and bright as cherry tomatoes. Whenever I’m out urban sketching, I feel compelled to capture the “big picture” and tell more of the story (whatever that is), but in a large garden like BBG, sometimes the tiny details of rose hips and bees tell a story, too. (Visit Kate's blog to see her sketch of me sketching these.)

 

In the few remaining minutes before our meeting time to share sketches, I wandered over to the construction area and dashed off a large bed of black-eyed Susans lending color to heavy machinery and construction workers taking a lunch break.

8/23/13 Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi ink, Zig marker, Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook