Mt. Rainier

4/30/14 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

If I take a five-minute walk, I can see this view of Mt. Rainier. Today is the very first time I sketched it. You’d think I’d be sketching it every chance I get.

It’s not a pleasant walk – I have to cross a busy, multi-lane, four-way-stop intersection that should have gotten a signal light many years ago. No matter the time of day, everyone’s crabby at that intersection because people don’t seem to know how to use a four-way, so a lot of honking and cussing goes on. Grumpy drivers never watch for pedestrians, so crossing means taking my life into my hands. (Driving there doesn’t help, as there’s no parking.) Once I get past that intersection, I have to stand on a heavily trafficked street overlooking Interstate 5, so it’s noisy, smelly and altogether not a wonderful place to sketch.

But none of this is why it’s taken me this long to finally sketch Mt. Rainier. The reason is that on most days of the year, a thick cloud cover obstructs it.

Not today.