Chinese Garden + Patrick's Cafe

I was glad to have the chance to go across town to meet up with the urban sketchers in the Chinese Garden recently. Definitely worth the bus trip across the city to a place I probably wouldn't have the occasion to visit otherwise! It was a very serene morning sketching with everyone in the courtyard of this beautiful building. I really liked the layers of rooftop on this structure, and chose a spot where the upward angle would be exaggerated. Since I arrived late I didn't do any pencil sketching, just went into it with paint...which ended up kind of confusing myself in the long run, since there are so many layers of wood and decorative flourishes.


Sue kindly gave me a ride to Patrick's Cafe & Bakery down the road, and I was so glad I went with the group to lunch this time. The conversation was fun, the food and coffee were GREAT, and I enjoyed sketching Patrick's new digs. The building is truly quintessential Seattle architecture. Normally I'd do a building portrait from much farther away from a more traditional angle, but I decided to challenge myself and draw a super wide view from up close, which turned out to be pretty darn fun.



Patrick was so nice to us that I really wanted to give him a sketch in return for his generous hosting, and also because I knew he'd be super psyched about a drawing of his new cafe space. Unsurprisingly he was pretty happy about receiving this one, and traded me a bag of his Lilikoi lemon shortbread cookies which are ~delicious~. Hopefully the universe will provide us more opportunities to trade art for good food and hospitality!

Chilly in the Chinese Garden

We haven't sketched at the Seattle Chinese Garden in a while so we decided it was time to return. This was my fourth time there.

Throwdown and group photo in the Knowing the Spring Courtyard.





Despite Summer having officially begun yesterday, today was cloudy and chilly. There was quite a breeze as I sat atop a small hill to sketch the view of the north side.



The Dragon Seeker is my favorite thing in the garden. I've sketched it twice before so I sought a new view today. I don't know what the characters carved into the standing stone mean, but I hope I copied them correctly.

 
According to traditional Chinese tale, a carp that could leap the high falls of the Yellow River at Dragon Gate (near Longmen, Zhejiang) would be transformed into a dragon. This Dragon Seeker was made in Thailand over 100 years ago. More recently, a Seattle couple had it in their garden in Kuala Lumpur. When they returned to Seattle, they donated him to the Chinese Garden.

A few of us went to lunch at Patrick's Cafe and Bakery just a few blocks south of the garden. Over about 3 years, we had sketch outings to the Stonehouse Bakery. Patrick was the owner and baker there but has now moved and has a full service cafe which he opened earlier this year. He was always so glad to host us when we sketched at the Stonehouse that we wanted to sketch at his new place.  He was equally gracious, giving us coffee and bringing a plate of banana bread to our table.  



Tina called this part of our outing "munch and sketch".  After a delicious sandwich, I sketched the corner of his new building from my table.


(banner is a bit of paper collage)

Chinese Garden and Patrick’s Café

6/22/18 Seattle Chinese Garden

Thursday may have been the first day of summer, but I was happy I wore my Polartec jacket to the Seattle Chinese Garden this morning. It was downright chilly in the unsheltered wind of the garden’s open grassy area, where I sketched a stone sculpture and the courtyard’s back gate. USk Seattle has sketched at the garden several times, and we all reminisced about how warm and sunny it had been on previous visits, even on our first one in April 2015. After nearly a week of sunshine (and even a day of record-breaking heat for June), this chill was a rude awakening.

When I went inside the courtyard for my second sketch, I realized that most of the other sketchers had already figured out that it was much warmer there. I tucked myself into a cozy corner to sketch a pine with long shoots and more stone sculptures around the trees.

6/22/18 Seattle Chinese Garden

The second part of today’s outing was a mile or two away at Patrick’s Café and Bakery in White Center. Last October we met at Stone House Bakery to say good-bye to Patrick Choy, who was moving his bakery out of the leased location we had enjoyed sketching for several years. To our delight, he later opened his own place at the White Center location, which we were happy to patronize for a Hawai’ian lunch and more sketching.

I was tempted to get a larger, less distorted view of the café building by sketching from across the street, but I decided I preferred the company of sketchers during our Munch ‘n Draw (yes, that’s a thing), so I stayed at the table. Luckily for them, I focused on the café and umbrella instead of faces.

6/22/18 Patrick's Cafe and Bakery