Rose Garden Compositions

 

6/23/25 Woodland Park Rose Garden

Thumbnail for sketch above

June is typically when the Woodland Park Rose Garden’s blossoms peak. I knew I hadn’t been there in a while, but when I searched my blog, I was surprised to find that it had been three years since the last time. Also surprising was that the USk Seattle outing there had been in October! That was pretty daring to plan a fall outing at a location without cover. If it had rained, maybe I was going to suggest that we all squeeze into the gazebo! Fortunately, no rain was in Monday’s forecast, so I invited Janet, Mark and Roy to join me there.

Flower gardens are always a compositional challenge for me. Although the colorful blossoms are always the eye-catcher, it’s difficult not to end up with a bunch of bright blobs on the page, yet no sense of depth. I noticed that in my 2022 post, I had made thumbnail studies to help me see some compositions before hitting the color. With compositional studies still on my mind, I had the same impulse for this visit, too. I was especially happy that I started with a study for the first sketch (top of post; study at right). In the thumbnail, I had put the gazebo smack-dab in the center of the composition. When I made the larger color sketch, I corrected that.

In the case of the second sketch of the lavender (below), I think I like my thumbnail (below, left) better than the color sketch. It’s a tighter composition without all the grass in front; I should have kept it that way.

Thumbnail for sketch above

We were all surprised to see that many of the roses were already past their peak; they must have bloomed early this year. I also noticed that the topiary trees that I enjoy sketching so much (truth be told, I like them more than roses) were looking quite shaggy compared to previous years. Despite all that, we had a beautiful afternoon at the garden.

I took this photo on Monday... shaggy topiary.

This photo from 2022 shows a tree more
tightly trimmed.