Spring!

Here in Southern California we’ve gotten a bit of rain lately, not a lot, but at least SOME, bringing relief from the terrible drought we’ve had the last few years.  Nature is certainly happy and is responding with bursts of color all over the place, especially at Descanso Gardens where it looks like spring on steroids. I ventured to take photos and do some sketching a couple weeks ago.

Within Descanso Gardens is a lovely Japanese garden.  The annual Cherry Blossom Festival drew 12,000 visitors this year.  I couldn’t get within blocks of the park, so I returned on a week day afterwards.  I love this little orange bridge snuggled in with the cherry and azelea blossoms.

My sketch doesn’t do justice to the little orange bridge but that’s okay, it will continue to be there and it will be my challenge occasionally.  I used Tombow watercolor pens which I like because of the brightness of the colors and great for quick studies.

A few days later the tulip gardens bloomed.  Again when I went to the gardens there was a long line at the entrance that a couple of visiting ladies told me that they waited an hour to get in.  Lucky for me I have a membership, so no wait.

I love the spires of blossoms rising out of the sea of tulips.  I think they are called delphiniums.  The variety of tulips was breathtaking.  I took some close up photos of the most dramatic ones to paint them later.  Below this sketch is a photo of the most unusual tulip I’ve seen yet.  I may be back with some closeup watercolor studies of tulips.  Happy Spring!