So, there is this major traffic jam (that is destined to last several hours) going on through the city during the evening recruit rush hour. Apparently, a semi truck filled with salmon overturned on one of the main thouroughfares through the city near the ball field, Safeco Field. Add to that there is a Seattle Sounder soccer game about to start at 7 pm in the same area at Century Link Stadium that will draw over 39,000 people to the match. Two events that make for a potent combination for traffic congestion damnation. Already, the downtown core is awash in lights of with and red, as the headlamps and tail lamps of slow moving/idle cars snake through the downtown streets and arterials.

I, thankfully, am on foot scouting the scene for today's daily painting. My treks take me through the Pike Place Market. Upon leaving the market, I head up Second Avenue. I settle on the scene in this painting. There is one particular reason why. The clue is in the painting. Look around the center of this painting. What do you see? What I can tell you is that when I saw this, I thought, "I have never seen that before at this angle. How cool!"
A little more about what's going on in the painting. Pedestrians are filling the sidewalk. Cars, buses, queue up forming long lines in the streets. Ahead, there is a couple walking towards us, with a little white poochy loo in front of them. Another person to the right of them from our view, is walking away with her little poochy loo, holding the leash in her left hand. A pedestrian light on the left is in the "walk" position. Seattle Art Museum, also on the left is promoting its current shows with the red and blue flags in this painting.

Did you find it yet? The object that I saw and that said to me "yes, this is the scene that I am going to paint today!"?

There it is! The iconic Space Needle seen in the center of this picture is also in the painting. I saw the top of the Space Needle, the observation desk, which sandwiched between the silhouettes of downtown buildings, was like a harvest moon in the horizon. Very cool! Seeing this non-traditional view of the Space Needle from a vantage point that I have often travelled, but actually took note of for the first time was a thrilling experience. When I caught this iconic image peaking out amidst the skyscrapers, I said to myself, "that's it!." Voilà!

Mary Lamery is a lifelong resident and native of the Pacific Northwest. Lamery paints regional landscape in a manner that leans towards 19th century French Impressionism. Her landscapes invite the viewer to add to the backstory of the composition through personal identification with the paintings and story telling of the experience.

To see more paintings in the Four Seasons series, please visit www.mlamery.com.