Some Wauwatosa Garden Tour pictures

I participated in The Suburban Woman's Club of Wauwatosa Garden Tour: "A June Jaunt in Ravenswood Gardens." Walking tour of six gardens near 87th and 88th streets off Blue Mound Road. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 29. Tickets were $10 or buy three, one free; $10 day of tour. Benefits local community service projects and teachers' scholarships.

It was definitely a nice place to paint and for a good cause too! I got there a little early and met up with Al from the Milwaukee Sketch Club, http://milwaukeesketchclub.blogspot.com/.   We walked through the Gardens. I got to say "Hi" to Wendy Thompson of WIPAPA, http://www.wipapa.blogspot.com/ . That's a good group too. Then Donna arrived and we started to walk around the gardens. We ran into Fred Bell http://fredbellpaintings.blogspot.com/ and Judith Reidy http://www.judithreidy.com/ . Judith was wearing a special panting overall with lots of pockets. I thought she said she got it indirectly from Jerry's Artarama but I just looked online and didn't see it on there. Finally Donna & I chose our painting spot. Al and Amy decided to paint there too. People were extremely nice there and interested in what we were painting. The day started out really cloudy and looked like it was going to rain. However by the time I left the sun was out giving interesting sun and shade patterns which of course kept moving.

I started out painting a really interesting house using titanium white, ultramarine blue, hansa yellow opaque, and burnt sienna for my red. (I like to challenge myself and use a limited palette.) I liked the triangle shaped lawn patch which led your eye up the right side of the house, then the peak led your eye back down in a circular eye pattern. I took out a big tree in front of the door because it disrupted the eye pattern. Also eliminated off white, sided addition.

7x5 acrylic on canvas

Donna left and Al went to visit around. Amy was still painting but I was basically done so decided to go to a peaceful garden that I saw earlier. I really liked the way the sun hit the leaves of the circular Ligularia (leapard's bane, rocket) and Cimifuga now called Actaea (snakeroot, bugbane). I had to break out the Alizarin crimson to paint the Actaea. The owner had a neat gate there too but I was painting to small to put it in. The owner told me that I painted his favorite view. Then he asked me if I was the one using my hands to find a view to paint earlier. Guilty! My hands are my favorite view finders. You can tell this was painted later in the day. With all this wet weather the colors of the green vegetation are still very intense.

 

 

6x8 acrylic on canvas

We got to wear a neat button too!