Suburban Trees

8/30/19 Bloomington

8/26/19 - 8/28/19 Bloomington

Last week we took our annual trip to visit family in the Twin Cities. While I thoroughly enjoy experiencing and sketching in St. Paul and Minneapolis, we usually stay in suburban Bloomington to be near family members. Filled with LaQuintas, Holiday Inn Expresses and other chain mega-hotels, our “neighborhood” is what I would call bland, blah and boring (OK, I’m being generous).

In the mornings as I waited for Greg to shower, I looked out of our 16^th floor window for something to sketch. Thankfully, the parking lot was marked by trees, which I had fun making fast thumbnails of. One day I took a walk to the edge of the parking lot and found a large tree with an ugly parking ramp and generic glassy building behind it. Even in suburban sameness, trees are unique, challenging and ultimately beautiful.

Technical note: I’m so happy that I switched from Stillman & Birn Zeta to Beta! I love the foliage texture that I’m able to get with colored pencils on Beta’s toothy surface.