Wet-on-Wet at the Arboretum

6/27/14 cherry tree

It was a good day for the wet-on-wet watercolor technique – whether I wanted it or not.

After a week of daily incorrect rain forecasts, it was finally correct on this morning that the Friday sketchers were planning to meet at the Washington Park Arboretum. We talked about a possible contingency location, but it was barely drizzling when we gathered there, so we decided to brave it.

When I was at the arboretum last week, I had spotted a large, elegantly asymmetrical cherry tree as we hiked along Azalea Way, so I made a mental note to sketch it later. Luckily, my sketch of it and I both stayed mostly dry.

6/27/14 umbrella plant

By the time I had finished, the drizzle was turning into a sprinkle that might have become an outright shower at any moment (You know how Eskimos purportedly have a thousand different words for snow? Seattleites have at least a hundred words for rain), so I thought I’d be smart and set up my stool under some wide trees. As I sketched the enormous leaves of the Darmera Peltata (umbrella plant), a young woman suddenly appeared with a camera, and I was delighted to have something to establish the scale of the leaves. Just then, a gust of wind shook all the trees I was sheltering under, drenching me and my sketch. I made the best of the mandatory wet-on-wet technique to finish it.