Gas Works Revisited

 

6/1/26 Gas Works Park

The grass is still littered with goose poop -- some things never
change. The fuzzy goslings sure are cute, though!

The deconstruction and removal work at Gas Works Park was supposed to be complete by now, so I went to see what the result looked like. Other than part of a long, horizontal pipe that had been removed, I was surprised to find that not much else had changed. The intention of the work was to eliminate structures that could be climbed, reducing the risk of falls. I had been expecting more of the pipes, ladders, catwalks and other connecting structures to be gone. Looking around, I could still see plenty of structures that a determined individual could figure out ways to climb, but if that’s the extent of the work, I’m relieved.

When I was at the park with Urban Sketchers last month, I sketched the eastern half of the primary gas works. This time I sketched the western half. Next time I visit, I’ll remember to bring my panorama landscape sketchbook so I can get the whole structure at once. Shown below are photos I took before and after the removal.

5/2/26 The long, horizontal pipework is still in place.

6/1/26 The middle section of the long pipe has been removed. 

Two Trees (Geeky Light and Color Talk)

 

5/31/26 Maple Leaf neighborhood, 1:22 p.m.

Most plein air painters will tell you that the worst light of the day are the hours around high noon; they favor early morning and late afternoon for both the color and the angle of light.

The sketch at top of post was made at around 1:30 p.m. PDT. Call me contrary, but I think it’s interesting and more challenging to take on that disdained high-noon light. Instead of a convenient crescent of shadow from a lower sun that shows a tree’s form, each cluster of foliage on each branch has both a highlight and a shadow.

About two hours later on the second leg of my walk, I sketched another tree, this time with the less challenging, classic crescent of shadow (below). This close to the summer solstice, the “late-afternoon” sun is hardly low in the sky, but it’s still interesting to see how much difference it makes.

5/31/26 Maple Leaf neighborhood, 3:33 p.m.

Green notes: I’m still experimenting with the same set of greens I refreshed my palette with a few weeks ago. For the most part, it’s working out, though it feels a bit conventional. I haven’t figured out how to shake up that part yet. I am pleased, however, with the two main greens that I’ve been using for trees: Caran d’Ache Neocolor II Spring Green (470) for the sunlit side and Derwent Inktense Iron Green (1310) for the shaded side. Initially I had chosen Iron Green, which is very cool and dark, for conifers (it’s the green I used most in the sketch I showed yesterday). When warmed up with Spring Green, though, it works well for the shaded parts of all kinds of trees.

Blue notes: Whenever I’m using a limited palette of three to five colors (which is nearly always), I think very carefully about what to do about a clear sky. I want to make it blue, but if I haven’t used that blue anywhere else in the sketch, it feels tacked onto the palette. It’s a dilemma that I didn’t know how to resolve until I heard Eleanor Doughty articulate the solution in her Domestika course (which I took a few years ago):

If she brings in a color from outside the limited range she has established for a sketch, she tries to use it in at least one more spot so the color won’t be random. It’s a sound principle for a cohesive palette, and now I follow it whenever I can.

For years, my favorite Seattle blue-sky color was Caran d’Ache Middle Cobalt Blue (660). However, that bright, warm blue has little use except as sky. With that in mind, I recently went through all my water-soluble blues to see if I could find one that would make a good sunny sky when watered down but is also dark enough to play double-duty as a shadow hue. Currently I’m trying Caran d’Ache Blue (what – no fancy name?) (260). For the street shadows in the late-afternoon sketch above, I mixed that blue with the Derwent Iron Green used in the trees, and I think they hold the palette together nicely.

That orange shining through on the late-afternoon tree trunk? Although not very apparent, I also used it very subtly in the trees to the left of the cars. Catching that bit of light was my proudest moment in that sketch!

Zeta Experiment at Javasti

5/29/26 View from Cafe Javasti, Maple Leaf neighborhood

After our one day of summer when temps were in the high 70s and even low 80s in some parts, we were back to winter the following day. After a walk, I felt warm enough to get a table outside Café Javasti, where these conifers gave me an ideal opportunity for an experiment.

From experiences long ago, I had dismissed Stillman & Birn's Zeta sketchbook from use with wet media. While its smooth surface is beautiful with ink, markers and especially Derwent Drawing pencils, it’s just not sized appropriately for washes or generous spritzing. I’ve used water-soluble pencils with Zeta before, but it had been a while, and I wanted to refresh my memory on that combo. Trees like these are an ideal subject because I want to retain the detail of their distinctive, feathery limbs, which is more difficult to do with a toothy paper like Hahnemühle.

I like this result: A little water deepened the colors without obscuring the details, and it was dry enough for the Zeta surface to take it.

Jimi Hendrix Park by Rail

 

5/27/26 Jimi Hendrix Park

I don’t get around to Jimi Hendrix Park often (the last time was two years ago); the sometimes grueling drive through the worst of traffic has only gotten worse. Since the latest stations in our light rail system opened in March, though, the park is now an easy train ride away!

Roy hadn’t yet ridden the Eastside line across Lake Washington, so Mary Jean and I decided he should experience it. After riding one stop to Mercer Island, we turned right back around and rode to Judkins Park Station, which is across the street from both adjacent parks.

On this brilliant, nearly cloudless morning, temps in the mid-60s, I was able to stand in full sunlight to sketch the prominent red sculpture in the middle of the park. Before writing this post, I had checked my blog from my first visit to Hendrix Park in 2017, and I had to laugh – a composition I had chosen then was almost identical to this one! I had even chosen the same quotation from the purple trail of song lyrics circling the park. My approach hadn’t changed much in nine years, either, but at least I could tell that some trees had grown.

Part of a sculpture honoring Jimi Hendrix's life

Filling a few minutes before meeting up again with MJ and Roy, I sketched the cutout silhouette of Jimi in the sculpture honoring his life (at right).

After lunch at Seattle Fish Guys, we made a nearby stop that had been on our radar: Temple Pastries. With delicious treats and good coffee, the café has one more appealing feature: Outdoor seating with a view of the Central District neighborhood.

That’s where I made my first page-spread sketch journal entry in my handmade UglyPads sketchbook. Although I like the striking appearance of two high-contrast colors as adjacent pages, the spread looks less cohesive – the two pages don’t “read” like they are part of the same entry. I think I’d like to draw more across the gutter to bring the pages together better. I do appreciate the slightly larger page spread, though, compared to commercially bound Uglybooks.

Temple Pastries, Central District neighborhood

Maybe in the next book I make, I’ll stack a few sheets of the same color so I’ll have some same-color page spreads. Hmmm . . . so many options when you bind your own!

Animal Heads and a Surprise at Sculpture Park

 

5/30/26 Ai Weiwei's Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads, Olympic Sculpture Park

After a long delay and much anticipation, Ai Weiwei’s monumental installation, Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads, officially opened at a community event May 30 at Olympic Sculpture Park. According to the Seattle Art Museum, “The works reconceive the 12 zodiac heads that decorated an 18th-century Qing imperial fountain before they were looted during the Second Opium War (1856–60). Seven are based on the original heads that have survived, and Ai researched and reimagined the five animals still missing to complete the zodiac.”

Lunch sketches

Despite the cool, cloudy morning, USk Seattle came out in full force to sketch the bronze animal heads, each standing 10 feet tall and weighing 1,500 pounds. I sketched different parts of it twice from different angles. Then later while eating lunch outside, I still had a good view of the sculptures, so I sketched a few more heads, this time with Jane in the composition.

Sponsored by SAM, the community event included live music and dragon dance performances by Wei Dai. The page below is a composite of Dai’s performance (lower right) and park visitors playing with long, colorful dragon streamers similar to the one Dai used.

Dragon dancer Wei Dai (lower right) and park visitors 

After lunch, I still had an hour before the throwdown, so I took a walk down to the waterfront. To my surprise, while I’d seen the fountain before, I discovered a figure in the fountain that I had never noticed. Not finding a placard, I had to do some online digging to learn about it, and it turned out to be an intriguing story:

Father and Son, a fountain with sculptures by Louise Bourgeois, was the result of a bequest to the city by a Seattle man, Stu Smailes. The avid art supporter stipulated in his will that the $1 million gift be used to build a fountain in Seattle. “The fountain(s) shall include one or more unclothed, life-size male figure(s) designed in the classical style, i.e.: realistic,” were the requirements, according to the Seattle Times.

Father and Son by Louise Bourgeois 

Eventually, the bequest was assigned to Seattle Art Museum, and Father and Son was installed at the western park entrance in 2005. According to Wikipedia, “The 15-foot fountain and sculpture depict a na    ked man and a naked boy reaching out to each other. At timed intervals, two separate sides of the fountain will either rise or fall to reveal or obscure one figure or the other.” Interestingly, I never saw the “son” appear the whole time I was sketching, and the water level didn’t seem to change.

The Wikipedia article goes on to say that “Father and Son is the first public sculpture in Seattle featuring nude figures. While the SAM’s statement on the artwork focuses on the emotional distance and vulnerability of the two figures, others in the local community saw the sculptures as overtly sexual and pedophilic.” I don’t recall any of this controversy from 2005 – and it took me more than 20 years to discover the figure!

One of many benefits of being an urban sketcher is all that I keep learning about my native city, one sketch at a time.