Longwood Gardens

A few weeks ago I visited my parents in South Jersey for a weekend, and my Mom, sister and I spent a day at Longwood Gardens. Despite growing up in easy driving distance, my sister and I had never been! The grounds were beautiful, and naturally I couldn't go and not sketch anything. Luckily, my family is generally OK with me breaking off to do my own little sketch crawl. First up: I couldn't resist the light on these red cannas!

Next I met up with the fam for a mid-afternoon fountain show (did you know the first fountains installed on the grounds were in the 1930's!?)

After watching the fountains we toured the conservatory, which was gorgeous! I stopped to paint a couple flowers, the Bird-of-Paradise and then a water lily whose purple hue I didn't quite capture, but at least got it better than the camera on my phone did!

Once we ate dinner on the premises, we settled into our chairs to await the evening, after-dark fountain show. It was super fun, they chose great tunes and the lighting was wonderful. There were even pyrotechnics! Highly recommend visiting if you're ever in the Philadelphia area.