Lan Su Chinese Garden

Wonderful sunny Saturday with the Urban Sketchers at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in downtown Portland. I had been digging through my art supplies and trying to find the absolute perfect brush before I headed out, because I had a vision in my head of what kind of drawings I wanted to do--like a long thin rigger-style brush, with really graceful painted lines...But when I got to the garden, I randomly pulled out a white paint pen and the sketchbook with black paper, and did that instead. Silly old brain.

Yes, it's the time of year for baby ducks in the fish pond. They were fantastic to watch. And when I got bored of the pattern of roof tiles, the scales on the fish took over nicely.

Then, after staring at that magnolia flower for a while, I shifted to a tube of "moonglow" watercolor paint and my travel brush with the water reservoir in the handle. Again, not what I had been planning to do. Again, lots of fun.

There was a pretty huge group of us passing around sketchbooks by the time we re-grouped out in front of the garden. Delightful doodles all around!

Will post sketches from the post-garden dinner soon.