The new greenhouse

We had visited the old University of Washington Greenhouse a few times. This was our first visit to the Biology Greenhouse in the newly built Life Science Building. It is many times larger than the old one. Manager Katie Sadler was our wonderful host. She gave us a quick tour, noting the central hallway is longer than a football field.

As with previous sketches in the old greenhouse, I like to sketch something that illustrates the workings of the facility. I chose a table with this odd selection of items: a foot tall cone, a jar of small cones, a colored tape dispenser, and a large jar of ground cinnamon.

The Costus barbatus had huge leaves and some interesting blooms. I added the corner of the door to give the sketch a semblance of location.

The hanging pitcher plan might be my favorite of this group. It reminded me of a friend of a friend who grew many such plants in his personal greenhouse. I always enjoyed seeing them when we visited.

UW Biology Greenhouse

 

1/25/23 UW Biology Greenhouse Bromeliad room

 

It may have been cloudy and chilly on Wednesday, but USk Seattle members stayed toasty-warm. Sketching inside the University of Washington Biology Greenhouse, we were dazzled by all the plant species we could sketch. Completely rebuilt and newly reopened at the end of 2022, the greenhouse is open to the public weekly, but we got an exclusive visit to ourselves so that we could sketch at our leisure. What a treat!

It had been nearly 10 years since USk Seattle met at the UW’s old greenhouse facility, which was in the same location but much smaller. After facility manager Katie gave us a tour,  I spent a while just walking through the various labs trying to focus. If I’d had all day, I might have comfied up with a stool and picked one plant to do a detailed botanical study, but with Urban Sketchers, I felt more like making a variety of vignettes instead. I started with a corner of the Bromeliad Room, also called the Tree of Life Room, where Kim was sketching an enormous dark red and green Vriesea imperialis (above).

Inspired by the imperialis’ gorgeous hues, I spotted a slightly hairy, carnivorous Nepenthes alata (blossom? leaf?), also known as a tropical pitcher plant, in similar colors. The bold vein pattern on an Alocasia micholitziana, also called green velvet taro, seemed like it should be easy to sketch, but its completely matte surface had no reflection or shadow to help me with form. The pitcher plant was easier in that regard.

Two fascinating and beautiful plant parts

In the few minutes before the throwdown, I made a quick sketch of some plants against a corridor window.

Facility manager Katie giving us tour and corridor plants.

Many thanks to UW Biology for giving USk Seattle full run of the place! We certainly intend to make this venue a winter mainstay.

Sunny Cal Anderson Park

 

1/14/23 Cal Anderson Park "fountain mountain"

USk Seattle always orders up sunshine, and for a change, it was delivered on time for our outing on Capitol Hill! Meeting up at the light rail station, which was going to be our contingency shelter, most sketchers took advantage of the mild, dry weather to sketch outdoors.

Broadway Performance Hall

I walked to nearby Cal Anderson Park, where I hadn’t sketched since 2016. The “fountain mountain,” as the Doug Hollis-designed water feature is called by locals, wasn’t running water the last time I sketched it, but this time it was. Apparently it was repaired last fall after some damage, so several of us who sketched it were lucky it was no longer covered in scaffolding.

After that, I walked around the neighborhood a bit to find a second sketch. A reflective, metallic sculpture in front of the Broadway Performance Hall caught my eye. I liked the contrast between the modern sculpture and the historic building, which was originally built as part of Broadway High School in 1911. Finding a way to put them both in the same composition, though, was tricky – the best view would have been from the middle of Broadway standing on the streetcar tracks. I had to settle for the sidewalk, barely getting the top of the tower into the sketch.

For my last sketch, I ended up back at Cal Anderson Park, where two women were probably sketching the fountain. After all the rain and gray we've been having, it was so nice to see shadows again!

My light rail rides to and from Capitol Hill are short – less than 15 minutes each way – so I barely had time to sketch, but I did my best to catch a few commuters.

We had a strong wintertime turnout by USk Seattle, including a visit from Anya from Anchorage, who tries to sketch with us whenever she’s in town.

Beautiful day at Lake Washington

Yesterday was probably the nicest day we'll have in the next week or more.  It was a day that required drawing on location.

I went to a near by spot that I haven't visited in at least 3 years.  

First, I walked along the Cedar River trail which borders the Boeing Renton plant.  There are lots of aircraft on both sides...the plant side to the East and the runway to the west.  A bridge over the river is only for Boeing vehicles, including the aircraft crossing!

These are unfinished Boeing aircraft.  They are covered in a green protective film, causing the Museum of Flight docents to call them "pickles". Actually, now that I think about it, pickles are just the fuselage, without nose and wings...usually seen on trains. 

I walked further on to the end of the trail at Lake Washington and the Renton Rowing Center.  From there I could see across the lake to, from left to right, Seattle, Mercer Island, and Bellevue.  There were gulls and coots on floating logs nearby.