The Houston Botanic Garden

The Group

After several rainouts, Urban Sketchers Houston finally made it to the Houston Botanic Garden. The day was perfect for sketching. The turnout was great and everyone was enthusiastic to explore the garden. We have a wide variety of sketches to enjoy.  

First there is Magdalena's sketch in the blog header. She did this drawing in the Global Collection Garden. The Tree of Life Sculpture is a standout feature.

Martha

Here is Martha. Enjoying the sun and drawing a bed of snapdragons.

Bruce

Bruce found a shady spot with some pretty trees which he drew in ink and wash.

Carlos

The chairs in the shade look pretty inviting. Those shadows tell a story.

Andrea

Andrea's depiction of trees has a sunnier feel.

Cooper

Cooper found trees that  had been taken down and drew them in pen and ink. The repetition of the log shapes makes this interesting.

Joel

Joel found a spot where various epiphytes were hanging from the trees.

 

Xiao

Xiao drew the bridge over the bayou.  Another nice contrast between those purple shadows and the bright orange bridge.

Sketching and conversation in the Global Garden

Mary McJunkin

Mary McJunkin

Two sculptures in two different sketches by Mary. In the first one, the color added to the flowers make them just pop. In the second, the sculpture echoes the curves in the roof of the arcade with its clever wall-pockets full of plants.

Peter

The very architectural shape of the water feature contrasts with the soft shapes of the trees in Peter's two sketches.

Michael

The botanical garden is full of sculpture. Michael found a butterfly. He also drew an blooming iris.

Rita

I believe Rita's sketch was inspired by the Family Garden. She zoomed right in on that foliage.

Madison

Madison's colorful sketch features all sorts of pretty blooming things and another sculpture.

Veronika

Veronika found a different sculpture and some garden workers doing some spring cleanup.

Jacklynn

Jacklynn worked in very soft and subtle colored pencil.

Sabrina

Sabrina drew this view of the dry climate garden and the view across the rest of the garden.

Chris

I was fascinated by the clusters of barrel cactus in the desert landscape with the purple Salvia in bloom behind them.

Cathie B

Cathie B

An agave about to bloom and some other dry climate plants.

Here are some more sketches from various parts of the garden.

Carlos

Mary McJunkin

Madison

Andrea

Everyone had the same comment, " I didn't get to see everything." There's so much to see in this garden. Here's our throwdown.

the throwdown

Finally, to show appreciation to the garden for the garden passes, we were asked to do some postcards. Hopefully they can be used to make postcards or cards for the gift shop.

postcards

Thanks to Jill Barry, Katy Caldwell and the Houston Botanic Garden for making this visit possible.  It was a great day!

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A Beautiful Saturday at Cameron Market

 

our group

Saturday was warm and sunny. A perfect day for an indoor/outdoor location. That's what Cameron Market, on the site of the original Cameron Ironworks, turned out to be. Here's a picture of our happy group indoors. But many folks chose to sketch outdoors.

Richard was a good sport about having his picture taken next to the port-o-potty. I guess this is what they mean when they say artists 'suffer' for their art. LOL

He was very patient and did a very nice, large watercolor and ink sketch of the exterior of the building. His vantage point shows the original brick structure on the left and the 1940's addition on the right.

Richard

Michael Jap had a similar vantage point, but his sketch has a much different tone and feel with the cool blues and reds.

Michael J

Fran drew only the exterior of the original brick structure.

Fran

Joel started to draw the front of the 1940's building, but got discouraged by perspective. I know a few sketchers who give buildings the fish-eye lens treatment. Looks fine to me.

Joel

Susan did a pen and ink vignette of the original building.

Susan

People who walked around the corner noticed a very large industrial building next door full of pipes and tanks and towers. It looked pretty intimidating to draw, but that didn't stop our group. You can see Joel's version in the header. He went for simple shapes and color.

Carlos

Carlos went almost monochrome, with big shapes and big blocks of tone.

Michael M

Michael M kept his color simple as well, but picked out detail in pen and ink.

Marcos

Marcos, who was visiting from Brazil, used only pencil. But he captured all the detail quite well.

The sketchers at work

A couple of us were fascinated by the downtown skyline from this vantage point. It was also a challenge: a long narrow railroad line running to a far vanishing point.

Xiao (Shaw)

Xiao kept it simple in watercolor. She even managed to capture Carlos at work.

Cathy B

Cathy Brun simplified the composition and the colors.

Susan

Susan simplified all those building shapes and established a strong foreground. She caught a traveler in her sketch.

Chris

I did a full page spread and kept it pretty colorful. It called for patience.

A few people worked outside and chose NOT to do buildings.

Martha

Martha liked the challenge of the earth mover in bright, hot yellow.

Jenniffer

Jenniffer arrived late, but had time to catch this guy outside.

Then there were the people working indoors. I listened to an interview with the developer of the marketplace. He explained that since it was a historic building, he was charged with preserving some of the look of the original interior. So to divide the retail spaces, he used freight containers. You can see that in the two drawings below.

Michael M

Michael M's sketch shows the view down one of the hallways.

Michael J

Michael Jap's sketch gives you a feel for how the containers have been arranged and stacked.

Another group hung out around the Segundo Coffee Lab in the front of the building drawing people.

Susan had cleverly collaged her page with different papers and some paint in advance.

Susan

Judith told us that she started in the bottom right corner with her coffee cup and worked her way up and around the page. Of course, she had an ear out for conversation.

Judith

Both Bruce and Carlos worked in black and white.

Bruce

Carlos

Veronika worked just in ink.

Veronika

Brett added a little watercolor.

Brett

Here are a couple more sketches from around the building.

Michael M

Cathy Bruhn

 We had the throwdown.

throwdown

Lunch was at the Moontower Inn where we looked at sketchbooks and compared sketching materials.

lunch

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