Blue Poppies

 Urban Sketchers Tacoma has sketched at Blue Poppy Day for several years.  This year we invited Urban Sketchers Seattle and several came.  There were also some new sketchers and one visitor from out of state.  It was a grand group who drew and painted so many different views of the event.  

I was a bit distracted, so I did a sparse montage.  Only one little poppy.  There were fewer this year due to weather:  too cold and then too hot. On the left is what appeared to be a bird house.  But I think it was a bee house as so many flew in and out. You can see on tiny yellow bee there. 

Blue Poppy Day

Every year, the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden hosts Blue Poppy Day to celebrate the blooming of this unique poppy. We have gone a few times to be included in the "Festival of Art and Nature" which features visual and musical artists.

By the end of the outing, there were many sketchers who came to share their work at the throw down. However, at least one is missing from the photo. 




I've sketched in the garden several times. I made a bee line to the blue poppies so I could do a small sketch as an inset. Then I walked back to sketch the building that was formerly the Weyerhaeuser HQ. 



I still had a bit of time left and I went back to sketch a charming old truck converted to a coffee truck.



-- By Kate Buike

Blue! Poppies

This was my first time at this event.  Urban Sketchers (USk) Tacoma was there two years ago but I wasn't.  As one of the sketchers said, "those poppies really are blue!".   Blue Poppy Day is held once a year at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden in Federal Way.  



This was an "ad hoc" outing and just a few sketchers attended.  There are two missing from the group photo. 





I decided on a montage. The tree on the left "hosts" what looks like a bird feeder. But I saw many bees going in and out. To the right is the bell in the gazebo. Lower left is the Garden Pond. That bit was rather rushed as it started to sprinkle. Last, but certainly not least, on the right side is the Blue Poppy.



More photos of pretty flowers are here. 

--Kate Buike