In the Japanese Garden at Cheekwood. 62 degrees, cloudy, around 3 pm. A Thursday, so almost no visitors. 11/30/17

The entrance gate.

In progress –

This wasn’t enough. I wanted to sketch the stone lantern. There is a memorial bench nearby. Generally, in a Japanese Garden, a bench is placed to remind you to stop here. There is a view that you need to see.

This is a Kasuga-style lantern. Stone lanterns, “ishidoro”, before use in the tea gardens, were used along the approaches to or within the grounds of temples and shrines.

A scan of this, with a leaf of a Japanese maple taken from brunch at First Watch earlier. The same colors were in this garden. The scan has made this much darker.

Here it is with more color and water added. I’ve adjusted the settings to look more realistic.

This is the main focus of the garden. There is a large covered area to view it from. The rails cut into the view.

and to the left

In progress –

There were very few people in the garden today.  It was a Thursday and very overcast.  However, this is perfect for taking photographs or sketching.  Another lady came by and sat in the covered area – also to sketch.  We acknowledged each other’s presence but stayed respectfully silent.  Even when my husband came to sit next to me, we whispered.  It is a sacred place.

To my eyes, there appeared to be a cherry tree in bloom to the far left.  That normally happens in April.  Magic.

A scan of this –

Later – with more color and water added.

Because the garden was so “busy” with color and plantings, I decided to sketch it quickly with just dark grey.  I like how it looks like Japanese calligraphy – that words are pictures, and pictures are words.

The bottom of the sketch is a quick view inside the tatami room at the Japanese restaurant where we went for supper. Normally for a large group – you can get it if there is just a couple of you if you ask and nobody else has reserved it.

Later, with water added to the lower sketch –

Here are quick sketches of our food and a corner of the room with one of the legless chairs. These are dry – no water added.

Later, with water –

The colors are better in real life – but so is everything, after all.