The Shady Side of the Street

 

7/26/22 Mt. Rainier from Maple Leaf Park

Here in the Pacific Northwest where we have a solid cloud cover much of the year, and blistering heat is rare (though, alarmingly, increasingly less rare), I’m not accustomed to having to find shade first before I look for something to sketch. I’m also fast, so on a “normal” weather day, I don’t mind standing in the sun for the time it takes me to make a sketch. I know I’m fortunate; many sketchers in other climates must seek shade as a normal routine.

On the first day of our heatwave this week, during which the city opened public cooling centers for people without AC, I went out early in the day to get ahead of the heat. Though the horizon looked a bit hazy, I could see from our partial view of Mt. Rainier that Her Majesty was out. My first stop was Maple Leaf Park to pay a quick homage. I didn’t think I’d find any shade there, and it was still comfortable enough that I wasn’t concerned, but I did find a tiny bit of shade that helped. At 8:17 a.m. when I finished the sketch, it was 75 degrees.

7/26/22 Maple Leaf neighborhood

After taking a walk, I had had plenty of sun and rapidly rising heat, so I zig-zagged my way home to stay on the shady side of the streets. I usually don’t like to limit my compositional view, but being motivated to stay cool gave me a fresh challenge. There’s always something to sketch if I’m looking for it.