East and West

4/8/20 Maple Leaf neighborhood, facing east

4/9/20 Maple Leaf neighborhood, facing west

We have a tiny sundeck off our upstairs bedroom. You’d think I’d be sketching from up there often, especially now that we’re mostly housebound, but the view seems like a cluttered mess that’s difficult for me to sort a composition from.

Desperate times call for desperate compositions, however, so on a gorgeous afternoon last week, I put on my shades and sun hat (yes, that sunny!) to see what I could see. Above is the view toward the east. Much of the foliage looks surprisingly like fall rather than spring – some trees seem to have yellowish-reddish branches before they leaf out. Many trees are still as bare as winter. Then there’s our next-door neighbor’s tree, which is dark red year-round, that dominates my view in that direction. I tried to identify it from Google images. . . maybe a Crimson King maple?

The next morning I went out on the deck again, this time facing west. This view is even messier – layers of houses and cars parked on both sides of the street. I simplified liberally.