Descanso Gardens

On a recent beautiful Sunday here in SoCal, I headed over to Descanso Gardens to play with my camera and do a little painting.  The flowers were beautiful and the light was gorgeous.  I definitely recommend a trip over there if you haven't been, it's only $8 and they have a tea garden, a camellia forest, a rose garden, California natives and more.

While there, I got to test out my new Koi Watercolor Sketch Kit.  I had to buy a new one, because I can't find my old one for the life of me, but it worked out, because I like this one quite a bit and it has more colors.  The brush is pretty neat too, it has a water reservoir in it.

I painted this:

It was fun to sit out on a bench in a shady spot and stare at a flower for a while.

I was doing a little research for a floral paper project that I am working on, and I went a little crazy with the flower pictures.  OK, now for an overload of pretty flower pictures.

The rose garden smelled amazing.

The branches in the canopy of the tea garden were like water flowing in the air.

Backlit camellias are the best.

Backlit flowers in trees are also pretty good.

That pink came from nature, nuff said.

I don't think I realized how much I liked camellias until walking through trees and trees of them in full bloom.

Tulips = spring!

There was a whole area full of lilacs, and their fragrance was overwhelmingly lovely.

Tiny little blossoms in a tree.