Last Saturday, I joined a half dozen fellow painters who sketch together at various locations around the city. We meet in one of the parking lots at the Des Moines Art Center, agree on a location for painting and off we go. This time we went to the Des Moines Botanical Center, which comprises a delightful set of indoor and outdoor gardens ranging from a dome that houses tropicals like palms and orchids, to extensive formal outdoor pavilions and gardens--even a huge lily pond complete with frogs. The setting provides any number of opportunities to sketch plants, trees, and so on. And if you're bored with that, the Des Moines River is a stone's throw away.
This time I set up near the entrance to the dome, where perennials, bulbs, and temperate zone annuals are in profuse flower. Several of the group did the same, so that I was able to include one of us in my offering that day. The sky was dark and cloudy, at least part of the time, threatening rain. At one point several enormous drops rattled down but then nothing followed. We were spared a soaking and I even had enough time to add a few details.
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| At the Botanical Center, watercolor, |
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