Sunday, September 20, 2015

Slices of Many Lives at Danny Woo Gardens

9/20/15 inks, colored pencils
9/20/15 ink, colored pencils

The Danny Woo Community Gardens in the International District offer a fascinating cross-section of urban Seattle. First there’s the interesting mix of architecture – new, boxy apartment buildings stand in the same line of sight as the stately Smith Tower. Scrappy-looking vegetation grows right next to tidy gardens and stands of trees that make you forget you are still in downtown Seattle. Gardeners weeding their P-patches look slightly askance at homeless men who, in turn, look askance at the sketchers occupying their favorite benches. And then there are the chickens (which I sketched last year, too). It’s an ideal sketch outing location for Urban Sketchers Seattle because no matter what your subject interest – architecture, trees, plants, people, fowl – you can find it there.
9/20/15 inks, watercolor

My favorite sketch of the morning is the one at the top of the page – the stone lantern (a 200-year-old gift from Seattle’s Japanese sister city, Kobe) marking tiny Kobe Terrace Park, which is your reward if you climb the gardens’ terraced hillside. A Japanese maple was just beginning to turn behind the lantern. Asleep nearby on the stone wall was a homeless man, covered in blankets.

9/20/15 brush pen, ink, watercolor

3 comments:

  1. These all have such a nice feel to them. It must be the serenity of the Japanese garden coming through. Nicely done! I really like that first sketch of the stone lantern.

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  2. As you indicate, the stone lantern sketch is wonderful but the tree is spectacular. I love the way you handled the foliage, giving it a very Japanese art feel. --- Larry

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  3. Thanks to you both, Joan and Larry! The gardens and trees and even the chickens were inspiring. ;-)

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