Maple Leaf Park Gazebo

 

4/10/26 Maple Leaf Park playground and gazebo

After I had posted a sketch of Mt. Rainier from Maple Leaf Park, I received a comment on Flickr asking how the gazebo was doing. Gazebo? I walk around Maple Leaf Park several times a week – how could I miss a gazebo? Then I realized that the “gazebo” was in reference to the structure in the lower part of the park where the playground is, where I rarely walk. I also hadn’t thought of it as a gazebo because it’s a very open structure compared to most gazebos (when I think of a gazebo, it’s something I duck into for shelter in case of unexpected rain). When I did a little googling to learn more about the gazebo (and found this article), I realized that the person who had commented on Flickr is one of the artists, Nick Lyle.

Gazebo detail

All of that made me realize that I had never sketched the gazebo! The next day, I immediately corrected that. The 10-foot-tall, forged steel structure is very airy with birds, plants and other natural motifs. Now I know why I hadn’t sketched it before – it’s very challenging to make the delicate, arching “branches” show up in front of all the deep foliage behind it.

I stood inside the completely open gazebo (no rain shelter here!), which is “evocative of the web of life that connects both the urban and natural worlds,” to sketch a cormorant detail. As often happens, I discovered that I hadn’t appreciated or even noticed those details until I sketched them.