Sunset Hill Before it Rains

3/31/25 Sunset Hill neighborhood

Pink pompoms!

I had heard that my favorite cherry trees on Sunset Hill were nearing peak, but several days of rain were in the forecast. Right after I got home from a play date with Roy and Mary Jean, it was still dry, so I dashed out to the west side.

Indeed, the blossoms were at 99 percent, I’d say – just a few visible buds within the huge, pompom clusters of pink blossoms! In addition to those huge, old, gnarly trunks, what I love about this block of cherries is that the blossoms are truly pink, not white, as many cherry blossoms are, including the ones at the UW Quad. I adore walking slowly through this fairyland, admiring each tree one at a time, then choosing one to sketch.

This is the tree whose trunk I sketched in my March 22 post when it was still in tight buds.

Exquisite, Confused Corpses

 

3/31/25 Exquisite corpses by Mary Jean, Roy and Tina

Exquisite corpses live again! Mary Jean, Roy and I got together to work on more exquisite corpses, which we had so much fun with last time. This time we chose an ocean theme. Somehow, though, we got the rotation mixed up, so we each ended up making both the head and the “feet” on the same piece! It was still a ton of fun, and we’re going to continue with more.

Afterwards, we had lunch at nearby Geraldine’s Counter, where our friend Allan Carandang has a show of intriguing paintings.

Some of Allan Carandang's paintings at Geraldine's Counter

A Joyous Celebration of Pink

 

3/30/25 UW Quad

Although USk Seattle meets at the University of Washington Quad every spring to sketch the glorious cherry trees, this year felt very different to me. Even the heavy crowds on a dry Sunday morning didn’t bother me as much as they sometimes do. With so much disgusting “leadership” going on in our country, and tragedy, horror and devastation elsewhere in the world, it was truly uplifting to be part of this joyous celebration of nature. Everyone seemed so happy! It was impossible to walk among those trees, even bumping into each other, without feeling a bond with humanity: All of us brought together by tiny pink blossoms.

Thank you, brilliant cherry trees, for giving us such joy.

At upper left, I tried to show some cosplay characters being photographed, but my sketch doesn't show them well. See photo below for what they actually looked like.

Technical notes: The past several years, I have used the Quad cherry trees outing to try various media, hoping to find the one that might help me successfully convey the billowing clouds of very pale pink (nearly white, actually) blossoms. As if the subject matter weren’t challenging enough, I wanted to add to the torture with uncertain media. Watercolor, gouache, dry colored pencils, acrylic markers, water-soluble crayons and blocks – you name it, I’ve tried it, usually with frustration and disappointment.

This year I decided to end the masochism and went back to basics: My favorite Pentel Pocket Brush Pen with a Derwent Inktense pencil (and a gray Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Big Brush Pen for contextual elements that I want to fade into the background). Familiar, reliable, satisfying in their simplicity.

These are the characters I saw being photographed. In addition, several groups of choreographed teenagers were being video'd, probably for their TikTok channels.

So much exuberance everywhere!

Wide Awake!

 

3/29/25 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Two days after I sketched the sleepy cherry tree that was still in buds, it woke up! Seemingly overnight, cherry blossoms are popping open all over town. Sadly, the weather forecast for the next few days is not looking good – so many blossoms, so few dry days ahead!

3/29/25 Wide awake!

3/27/25 Still sleepy