Lotuses are blooming

Finally a sunny day to draw the lotuses. I can't let a year go by without it. They need a big sign - we were there a long time and everyone called them water lilies. Not so many flowers - yet. It has been so cool that maybe more flowers will come if warm weather continues.

After lunch, we sought out interesting trees to draw. Couldn't find last year's favourites, so we discovered some very interesting ones we hadn't seen before. I have to draw these trees again on a bigger page & starting earlier in the day. I can't say what they are, because I couldn't find a sign.

As much as I wanted to capture a few roses on our last Spring Sketchabout, it was a little bit daunting. So I settled myself in by first painting these flapjacks.

Made a few attempts at some roses, but my style is so rough, it doesn't quite capture the delicate, intricate petals of a rosebud.

Finished off the afternoon in the Oriental Garden, more just to escape the sun. Too tired to capture the entire scene, I decided to pick my two favourite sections and paint them separately.

Lower Gardens, Lotus Pond

I missed the morning sketching class and arrived a bit late in the afternoon, before settling down to be hypnotised by lotus fronds.  While I was sketching this, five ibises stalked past, two dusky moor hens walked by me, a neat-footed boy came right up and checked this out before I noticed him.  Two Indian ladies, one with a pink headscarf , a crocheted triangle in shell stitch, posed nearby me for a photograph.  The strange black finial is a ring-in from the gates near the Con, which i think someone wiser would have left out. April 2, 2011.

Lower Garden – Lotus Pond

Watching the lotus leaves, crowded, flippant,

in a lake subsumed by jostling, a party of flirts

who smile and stare, then blow the other way.

None are perfect, most blowsy

with torn edges, fading patches

and yellow margins, some younger leaves

pruned savagely by insects.

The pond heaves and shivers,

courts the wind, unlikely picnickers

they fill the field, while I try to push

a green puddle into shape.

Then a dusky moor hen steps past, [more timid

than a Coot, tamer than a swamp hen]

red and black feet latent with possibilities.

sts back I was sketching lotus flowers in a vase.

Fig Tree and Lotus Pond Sketches

Fig tree sketch from this Saturdays sketchabout

Fig Tree with Harbour



Unable to make the previous weeks sketchabout, however sketched the lotus pond the previuos week



Lotus Pond Botanic Gardens

Fred Marsh

http://www.marshstudio.com/