Bradner Gardens 3-The Zombie Rabbit

Sketches in progress at Bradner P-Patch

As I stood there sketching my last two of the day, I couldn't help but remember a familiar refrain from Irving Berlin:

Blue skies smilin' at me
Nothin' but blue skies do I see
Blue birds singin' a song
Nothin' but blue skies from now on

I never saw the sun shinin' so bright, never saw things goin' so right.......

"Blue Skies" by Irving Berlin

And yet.......
I felt like nicknaming this patch the "Garden of the Undead". Most of the seasonal produce had been harvested and perennials remained. (Get it? Perennials LOOK like they've died off, but they keep coming back!) Then, their ghoulish smiles and faded coloring lent these two scarecrows a distinctly "Frankenstein-ish" quality. Well, the Executive Scarecrow did anyway. In this photo you're looking at the back. I sketched him from the front. Ahem. FYI. XYZ.

The "scare rabbit" just looked like a zombie. He was the right color, for sure, and he had these "x" shaped stitches in his ears and on his pouch/pocket.

Power source at the ready, all we need now is a kite and some lightning.

 
Winding paths connect the seven ornamental theme gardens of Bradner Gardens Park: butterfly & hummingbird, fragrance, sensory, shade, xeriscape, winter interest and northwest native. Watch the bees buzz the 61 p-patch plots. Learn the alphabet under the watchful eye of the baby scarecrow in the children’s A to Z garden. Learn how to grow food crops in the Seattle Tilth and Urban Food demonstration gardens. Watch birds take shelter in the native plant habitat. See more than 50 varieties of ornamental street trees recommended for small spaces and under utility lines. Paraphrased and quoted with map from Seattle parks website.

Tap or click map to zoom.

I started in the Children's Garden, sketched the bride scarecrow in the northern P-Patch, toured the rest of the sculptures and ended with these two from the large P-Patch in the southeast corner of the garden.The rest of the ad hoc group of USk Seattle were sketching their own subjects around the garden.

At the end of the meet up we met in the center at the Pavilion to share our sketches. -August 21, 2015.

Bradner Gardens 2-"The Bride" and her Accessories

I've now added watercolor to my second page of sketches from the urban sketcher's Bradner P-Patch outing last Friday. This page is about the scarecrow bride and her accessories. More photos and original ink drawings were all posted that same day here.

As with any bride, the setting is as important as the dress. At Bradner Gardens, they have positioned her in a clearing of her own, backed by a screen of trees and flanked by a bed of pink cosmos.

Micron black pen, watercolor and watercolor pencils, logo collage.

Already a regally tall bride, her height is accentuated by her twiggy up-do and dangling high heeled boots. She's hung her wasp trap handbag on a nearby branch while posing gracefully with outstretched rebar arms. Clusters of ripening blackberries might have made a lovely bead necklace, but she has the non-perishable kind. Along with her "pearl" bead necklace, she has a tiara cleverly crafted out of plumbers' tape. Red reflector earrings, the built in wringer from a sponge mop used as a comb in her hair, I could go on and on.

"You look good from the back, too, girl."

A pair of green "nylon" ropes tie her boots on. I'm not certain whether the blush pink cloth draped around her shoulders is meant to be an old fashioned fichu or if it's her veil, blown about by the wind and tangled in her hair.

Needless to say, those skinny rebar arms could use a little protection from the elements. They're already a bit rusty.

It was a lot of fun guessing at the wardrobe allegories and metaphors.

Stayed tuned: one more page in this series to finish up and post.

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Bradner Gardens One

On Friday, the Ad Hoc group of Seattle Urban Sketchers met at Bradner Gardens P-Patch. Our grandchildren came with me and toured the garden on their own as I went around the garden sketching. There were so many things I wanted to capture that I decided to forgo color in favor of getting as many line drawings as I could in the time we would be there. I posted those sketchbook pages the very same day here.

I added watercolor later. To help our little great granddaughter remember the day, I wrote notes in the sketches. Tap or click to zoom if you want to read them.

Although the story is true, my reportage took the form of a fairy tale.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story.

Bradner P-Patch--Flowers, Funnels and Jello Molds, Oh My!

The arbor entrance on the East side of the garden at 29th Ave S.

Our Seattle Urban Sketchers Friday ad hoc meeting was at the Bradner P-Patch. It is one of 60 community gardens scattered across the city of Seattle. Originally started in 1987 as the Mt. Baker P-Patch, today Bradner has 61 garden plots of 200 square feet each.

The new year of 2013 was celebrated at Bradner Gardens Park with a new artwork on the trellis fence. It is a guardian for the bike rack on the basketball court. Artist is Clair Colquitt.
The official website has a list of the 7 themed gardens and the art installed in them.

I was instantly enchanted by the quixotic figures in the patch...they even have their own windmill!

As with anything for which one grows fond, I have my own nicknames for some of the "scarecrows" and sculptures that I sketched this morning. I even nicknamed a particular part of the garden, and you will see why:

The block headed gentleman with the yellow power tie seemed to be something inspired by Frankenstein, with nearby power lines to zap a bit of  life into him. The Zombie Rabbit (my nickname) may be a better figure for scaring crows than the usual man of straw.

 

Would this be Virginia the "Bride of Frankenstein" with her up-do of twig hair, dangling high heeled boots and pearl necklace? Perhaps she is named after the souvenir ashtray from West Virginia that creates her full lipped smile.

Fascinating and imaginative artwork can be found throughout the garden. Made with repurposed materials like scissors, clothing cast offs, toys, tableware, wheels, gears, broken garden tools, carved wood, teapots and jello molds, these designs enhance the atmosphere of partnership in this garden  between man and nature.

I made the following sketches in a 7x 10" Pro-Art sketchbook with my Micron pen....As in life, no eraser, and I'm serving them up fresh out of the garden before I cook 'em with watercolor and garnish with text.

Actually, my first sketch of the morning was the "Cabbage Patch Boy" with his shiny tea kettle head, overalls and missing b̶u̶n̶n̶y̶  lambie slipper. I nicknamed him after the familiar doll-like shape and the red cabbage patch that grows at his feet. On the same page I drew what seems to be some sort of salmon shaped barracuda mutation with chainsaw spines, an army helmet gullet and a forked tongue. It swims in a bed of lovely pink dahlias, but they have teeth, too!

"The Bride" just wouldn't fit in one piece, so I sketched her twiggy up-do and pearl bedecked gown. Then, I continued with her dangling high heeled boots and nearby accessories of pink cosmos and a purse-shaped wasp trap.

My last two sketches were in the "Garden of the Undead" (again, my nickname, but perhaps this is where perennials grow?). The Zombie Rabbit and aforementioned sartorial gentleman seemed energized by the power lines running through the background. I wonder if they lead to a  plasma-ion generator or perhaps the solar array atop the community building.  (I'm sure there must be a bolt in his neck somewhere.)

All in all, the Bradner P-Patch Garden seems very appropriate for the Emerald City.