First Stop: Metro Market

 

9/22/21 Wedgwood neighborhood

My personal leaf-peeping tour has begun in earnest! It seems early this year, but maybe I say that every year . . . it’s probably more a reflection on my reluctance to let summer go than nature’s actual timetable.

First stop: the maples in the Wedgwood neighborhood’s Metropolitan Market parking lot. These are not the same trees I sketched at the end of August (sadly, those are half-bald already). I looked back through my sketches to see if I had captured these same maples another year. Sketched from a different angle, the trees in this post from 2018 are likely the same ones, as they are in front of the fire station. That was two weeks later in the year, so I suppose they are turning at about the same rate this year.

Technical note: When I pick a focal point for a composition, I usually do a decent job of staying focused. I admit I was a bit distracted on this one, however. Obviously, I wanted to sketch the trees, but the ever-changing pattern of cars was fun to chase, too. Maybe some dreary winter day when the trees are bare, I’ll park in the same spot and sketch the layers and layers of diagonally parked cars instead.