Happy World Wide Sketch Crawl Day

A view across Lake Union to Gas Works Park from the MOHAI dock.

          This month has been a slow sketching time for me. I managed to get off a few sketches of South Lake Union while volunteering at the Art Not Terminal Gallery, but storms and a dental implant kept me in for most of January. So I took advantage of our sunny weather to join the 42nd World Wide Sketch Crawl.

Honda Element across the street from Art Not Terminal Gallery

          After volunteering at the Seattle Chinese Garden, I took a minute to do a quick sketch of the Knowing the Spring Courtyard. The space features a variety of winter and spring plants including plums, cherries, bamboo and pines. 

A stone arrangement surrounded by pines dominates the court's south side. Plums (Prunus mume) provide a transition to the paved north side. In china, Pines represent longevity because of their ability to live for hundreds of years and evergreen needles. Plums represent hope and beauty because the trees are the first to flower in the new year, often before the winter snows have melted.