Early Spring in Public Gardens…

[By Virginia Hein in Los Angeles, California, USA] Early Spring in Southern California means we finally have a bit of rain, and so our semi-desert landscape is getting greener!  This is the lovely Los Angeles Arboretum, and an overgrown view of the Victorian era Coach Barn.

Also at the Arboretum–the Peacock Cafe, sketching over lunch with my sketching pal and fellow L A USk correspondent, Shiho Nakaza…

A bit earlier, I sketched

at Descanso Gardens, another Los Angeles area urban garden, where I had the pleasure to teach a sketching workshop series…these are demo sketches made in the Japanese Garden, just before the annual Cherry Blossom festival…

…and in Descanso Garden’s Rose Garden, things just beginning to bloom in February…