Learning about Gas Works – in More Ways Than One

 

9/17/22 Gas Works Park

As often as I have sketched at Gas Works Park, and as much as I enjoy it, I am still daunted by the scope and scale of the gas works structures themselves. I usually bite off a chunk that I think I can reasonably chew (this post shows the typical bites I take). Even when I’m brave enough to tackle the entire main gas works assembly, I don’t scale it on the page to allow space for much context.

When Gabi Campanario offered a Great(er) Seattle Sketching Tour at the park last Saturday, I jumped at the opportunity to see how the master does it while also learning more about Gas Works Park.

After hearing his brief lecture about the park’s checkered history, sketching the gas works along with its context tells a deeper story. For example, I didn’t know that Kite Hill had to be built up over an existing smaller hill as part of the park restoration. Including Lake Union (OK, it’s barely visible at left, but I got a bit in) is also important, because obviously having a water source for the gas works was critical.

Gabi has enhanced his viewing aid!

Guidelines like the sketchbook’s gutter (the horizontal center of the composition) helped to ensure that I wouldn’t run out of space for everything I wanted to include in the composition. My only regret is that I placed the bottom of the gas works too close to the bottom edge of the page, so I didn’t have space for a foreground element that would have added to the depth (the bike riders at left would have been nice to include in the foreground). But overall, using his suggestions, I’m thrilled that I was able to make a sketch that I could not have made the day before.

As I thought about the concepts he talked about, I realized they were no different from ones I learned in other workshops I’ve taken from Gabi. Or maybe I should say, they were no different from concepts he taught – I obviously hadn’t learned them (or at least hadn’t internalized what I’d learned).

I think this is another example of something I’ve observed about my own creative learning process many times: It often takes hearing and practicing the same concepts over and over to make them “stick.” And sometimes I might not be ready to learn a concept until I’ve had a certain body of experience behind me that prepares me to learn it.

In addition to being illuminating and informative, the sketch tour was a lot of fun! This time the participants included two professional architects – that says a lot about Gabi as a teacher!

The daunting gas works simplified by Gabi

Workshop throwdown

I couldn't resist sneaking a photo of Gabi's sketch kit! ;-)

Bittersweet at Gas Works Park

 

5/2/26 Cranes are poised for destruction at Gas Works Park

Back in February when I participated in a “heart bomb” for Gas Works Park, the decision to dismantle some of the historic structures had been tabled by the city. There was still hope to find alternative solutions that would address safety concerns while retaining the structures. 

The usual park residents

Then in April the Historic Seattle organization reported that one Seattle department had ordered another city department to remove “character-defining features (catwalks, platforms, railings, ladders, pipes, etc.), or “appurtenances,” on the iconic towers by May 15. It seems a decision had been made quickly without the knowledge or involvement of landmarks preservation organizations (see the full story and context at the link above).

USk Seattle had been thinking of a different location for our May 2 outing for International Urban Sketchers Week, but we made a quick decision to meet at Gas Works Park instead. We had to sketch ASAP if we wanted to capture as much of the original structures before they were forever changed.

Knowing that it would be the last time we’d see the gas works as they had always been, it was a bittersweet outing, and USk Seattle came out in full force. The blow was somewhat softened by the amazing weather: Temps in the low 70s with sunshine and a soft breeze off Lake Union! I was among the many sketchers who sat or stood comfortably in full sun without feeling too warm. What a treat!

I stood at the top of Kite Hill for most of my sketches so that I could include the backside of the gas works, where cranes were already in place to dismantle pieces that could be climbed. While it’s tragic that several trespassers have fallen to their deaths over the years, it’s important to note that the entire area has always been surrounded by fencing with signs everywhere prohibiting entry and climbing.

It’s also a great spot to capture kite fliers, people and dogs enjoying the sunshine at the crest of the hill.

Top of Kite Hill

Because I’m feeling sentimental about my favorite city park, I’m showing below some of my many sketches of Gas Works Park from the past 11 years.

1/19/26

4/18/25

9/17/22

9/2/21

6/22/17 The piping and catwalks that cast these cool shadows will soon be gone.

7/2/16

9/9/15

5/2/26

Heart Bomb for Gas Works Park

 

2/17/26 Gas Works Park

Built in the early 1900s, a coal gasification plant had operated on the shores of Lake Union until 1956. The mammoth, steam punkish remnants are on the historic register. The only remaining of their kind in the nation, the gasworks are a central feature of Seattle’s Gas Works Park, which opened to the public in 1975.

Despite ample signage and barriers intended to keep people from climbing the structures, trespassers still do, and some have died. The Seattle Parks Department recently applied to the Landmarks Preservation Board to take down the potentially hazardous gasworks. The Historic Seattle organization says: “We believe there are better solutions to preserve and reinforce most of these elements so that they may continue to tell the story of this Landmark, while also removing elements that provide access to the towers.” The decision has been tabled for now, and the Parks Department has been encouraged to consider more “preservation friendly options.”

That sky may look sunny, but the "feels like" temp was 37 degrees with the windchill!
(Photo by Kim Roberts)

To raise awareness of the issue, Historic Seattle held a “heart bomb” last Tuesday at Gas Works Park. What is a heart bomb? It’s “a public display of affection for places that matter. Every February, people across the country gather at historic sites and local landmarks (both safe and threatened).” 

Huh – I had never heard of it until now, but it sounded like a great sketch opportunity. As Gas Works is my favorite city park and a beloved sketching location for USk Seattle, it seemed especially important to report on the occasion.

With an appointment right before the noon event, I was late, and the event was much shorter than I had expected. As I was walking toward the park entrance, heart bombers were already walking out carrying large heart-shaped signs. (In the organization’s Instagram reel, I saw a joyous display of hearts and smiles as Historic Seattle members and friends showed their love for the park.)

Heart bomb selfie

Although I regretted missing the gathering, I still wanted to honor my beloved gasworks with a sketch. Kim had arrived in time to sketch the event itself, so at least one of us caught it. I was told that sharing a selfie on social media and hashtagging #heartbombSEA would be an appropriate way to participate, even if I missed the event.

Although I’ve sketched at Gas Works Park many, many times, this may be my loosest interpretation yet – not by intention but because my hands were so cold! Although it was partly sunny and a somewhat tolerable 42 degrees, the top of Kite Hill is one of the windiest spots in the city year-round! BRRRR!!

Chilly Kim and me at the top of Kite Hill

Clear Sky Over Gas Works Park

 

1/19/26 Gas Works Park

On Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, our cold but clear skies continued. Bundled up, I took the top down for my drive to Gas Works Park, where many young people and families were enjoying the holiday. (Aside: A large party of Spanish-speaking picnickers laughed and talked happily as they shared food spread out on the grass. I was heartened to see them because it meant that they – unlike many others in this country – felt safe enough in a Seattle park to gather publicly to enjoy the day, just like everyone else there. I felt compassion and sadness for all darker-skinned people who would not feel safe doing the same wherever they live. Dr. King’s message from six decades ago is, sadly, still just a dream.)

Using chunky Derwent Inktense Blocks to sketch a part of the gas works that I’ve sketched previously many times, I recalled how much time and energy I used to spend trying to render each one of the many pipes connecting the huge tanks and how frustrating it often was to try to draw what I couldn’t see clearly or understand where they connected (here’s one example from 2014). It took me a long time, but I finally realized I don’t have to draw all that to convey the essence of the gas works.

Color note: Although I used the same limited palette of Inktense Blocks as the one I used at Green Lake, the hues are such that they look mostly “normal” at Gas Works Park – that is, I had a green for grass, blue for water and sky, and rusty tones for the tanks. Still, if I’d had a full range to select from, these are not the colors I would have chosen for this scene, so they still seem a bit wacky to me. Overall, though, I can feel my brain finally making a shift toward seeing that hues do not have to match “reality” to read as “real.”

Technical note: As soon as I tried using the “licking” technique for the sky, I regretted it. Although I remembered that Inktense Blocks fail at this trick (compared to most solid water-soluble products), I guess I had hoped that the Blocks had learned the trick since the last time I used them. Nope.

Rusty at Gas Works Park

 

5/20/21 Gas Works Park

If you’ve been to Gas Works Park, you know that the primary color there is rust. A few days ago, the gas works weren’t the only things that were rusty; I hadn’t been to my favorite Seattle park in so long that I felt thoroughly rusty myself. As much as I’ve sketched in my own neighborhood and at home during the whole pandemic, and as many times as I’ve sketched at Gas Works Park, its scope and scale and having so many choices made me feel like a beginning sketcher.

Ever since I became fully vaccinated a couple of weeks ago, I’ve felt like Rip Van Winkle awakening after more than 14 weeks of isolation. Greg and I walked around Lake Union’s shore, climbed Kite Hill, slowly rotated to take in the 360-degree panorama, and I felt like a tourist instead of a native. Families and small groups picnicking, couples strolling, kit fliers taking advantage of the breeze – nothing had changed in more than a year, and yet everything had changed. Or maybe it was me who had changed. I appreciate everything more.

A bit stunned and bewildered, I eked out a quick sketch of some gas works and another of a few geese. I knew it didn’t matter what I sketched; it was just a teaser. I would be back for much more.

Tina’s Top 10 Memorable Sketches of 2021

 

2/27/21 6th & Westlake

One of my year-end rituals is to look back at the sketches I made and pick the 10 most memorable. Not necessarily the “best” or my “favorites,” they are sketches that stay with me for emotional significance or personal meaning. Not surprisingly, every one of the 10 this year somehow relates to the pandemic. Even when the subject was mundane (as it most often was), the emotional impact was not.

 

Feb. 27, Sixth and Westlake (above): My first sketch downtown in more than a year, this view of Westlake was right around the corner from the Amazon SuperVax site, where Greg was receiving his first Pfizer dose. After highly competitive and aggressive scheduling tactics, the shot itself felt triumphant. But more than that, we both felt immensely grateful that we were one step closer to being safer.

March 25, Toni (from photo, below): Although I have many friends and acquaintances who have been affected by COVID in some way, no one has touched me more deeply than Toni, my yoga instructor’s sister. I made this sketch from a video image that Fran took as Toni was transported from her hospital bed (where she had fought COVID for five harrowing months) to another facility where she was supposed to begin her long rehabilitation. We all believed she had beaten the odds. Days after the transfer, she succumbed to pneumonia – only one of nearly 800,000 dead so far in the US from COVID-19. Although I never knew her, Toni’s suffering and courage stay with me still.

3/25/21 Toni

April 5, Microsoft Conference Center vaccination site: I documented my own first dose of the Pfizer vaccine with mundane sketches of fellow jab recipients waiting out their mandatory 15 minutes. It was both amusing and poignant to see sketchers worldwide sharing similar sketches. 

4/5/21 Microsoft Conference Center vaccination site

April 26, my 407^th hand: Completing the drawing I began on April 5, I added a second hand in a gesture of gratitude, ending my series. Although the pandemic was far from over, receiving my second vaccine dose represented a measure of safety I hadn’t known in 407 days. 

4/26/21 The culmination of 407 consecutive days of drawing my hand

5/17/21 St. Edward State Park

6/13/21 Gas Works Park

May 17, St. Edward State Park (above): A new sketch location for me, St. Edward State Park is memorable in another way: It was the first time I had sketched with friends in more than a year.

June 13, Gas Works Park (above): For the first time in 15 months, Urban Sketchers Seattle was able to sketch together again. How I had missed everyone!

July 8, outdoor life drawing (below): Almost as much as urban sketching with my friends, I had missed life drawing. Joining an informal plein air group at Gas Works Park for an outdoor session felt like one more step toward a return to normalcy.

7/8/21 life drawing at Gas Works Park

Sept. 15, Ocean Shores cottage porch: This Washington Coast town is only a couple of hours away by car, but as our first “travel” in two years, it was an enormous treat. Several days on the beach rejuvenated our pandemic-weary souls.

9/15/21 Ocean Shores

Oct. 17, light rail rider: A sketch outing at Pike Place Market gave me the incentive to take my first ride on public transportation in 19 months.

Nov. 16, sashimi at Kisaku: One more milestone in our return to normalcy, we dined inside a restaurant for the first time in 21 months.

10/17/21 Sound Transit light rail, southbound

11/16/21 sashimi appetizer at Kisaku Sushi

A Moment at Gas Works Park

 

6/6/24 Gas Works Park

Early June’s atmospheric river was a doozy, but we crossed it – and on the other side was summer! When I saw the weather forecast last Thursday – sunny and in the high 60s – I knew where I was headed: Gas Works Park!

While it’s my favorite park any time of the year, it’s really special on a blue-sky day shining on Lake Union. The day called for color (see, this is why I can’t choose between my children); in fact, the always-formidable gas works called for my larger A5 Hahnemühle sketchbook. I still used my basic comics approach, but the larger book gave me more room. Like Sunday color comics!

New restroom and old gas works

Although I’m accustomed to using the small A6-size spreads (exactly half the size of the A5 spread), it felt deliciously spacious to open up the A5 – like moving from a small apartment to a large house. It would be tempting to use that size all the time . . . except I don’t want to carry it everywhere. It’s nice on special occasions, though, and I can’t think of a more special occasion than a warm and sunny June afternoon.

On my way out of the park, I stopped to document its new restroom (at left). It’s rather utilitarian, like something that you might see at a campsite, but it’s a huge improvement over the dark, creepy, nasty restroom it replaces.

Oh, hello, Your Majesty... where have you been?

Sketcher Fest Auxiliary Events

 

7/18/24 Gas Works Park

After the ice cream cruise, locals were eager to show out-of-towners the cool places to sketch in Seattle. Gas Works Park was a popular choice, and rightly so. Its unique structures and great views of Lake Union, the Space Needle and downtown make it my favorite Seattle park to take visitors to. In addition, since we had all just seen the park from the water side, it would be fun for them to see it from the ground.

Since I’ve sketched at the park many times, I thought about what I wanted this story to be about – our visitors – and that’s what I focused on.

My lunch between Gas Works  and the Troll

After Gas Works, Kim and I decided that visitor Joel shouldn’t leave Seattle without seeing and sketching the Fremont Troll (below). Although I have sketched the Troll numerous times, I realized I hadn’t since the attraction had gotten a makeover last year. A new stairway was built to make it easier to climb the Troll, a favorite selfie location.

Fremont Troll with new stairway

Art Walk Edmonds, a Sketcher Fest sponsor, invited USk Seattle to see the exhibits and sketch along the way that evening. After the long day, I started to fade before the throwdown, but not before a relaxed dinner in Edmonds with a few friends at Fire & the Feast, at a lovely sidewalk table.

Dinner at Fire & the Feast, Edmonds

Giving Joel a ride back to his hotel, I thought our sketching day was over – until we saw that Her Majesty was out! I remembered Joel mentioning that he wanted to sketch or at least see Mt. Rainier, so we made a stop at Maple Leaf Park. The golden hour is a time of day that I rarely see Her Majesty, let alone sketch her, so it was a fresh view for me, too. After a long day of nonstop socializing (fun but challenging for this strong introvert), the quiet sketch I made there with Joel was my favorite moment of the whole day.  

Mt. Rainier from Maple Leaf Park

Troll fans

Photo by Kim Roberts

A quiet moment for introverts with Her Majesty

Tina’s Top 10 Memorable Sketches of 2019

2/2/19 Alaskan Way Viaduct

It’s time for another year-end tradition: A review of my most memorable sketches of the past 12 months. These aren’t necessarily my favorite or “best” sketches; they’re ones that evoke strong memories and feelings when I see them. After all, one of my primary motivations for sketching is to remember how I felt when I sketched. (Click the title of the sketch to read the original post.)

Here are links to my most memorable sketches from past years: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013.

2/11/19 Snowpocalypse

Feb. 2, Farewell to the Alaskan Way Viaduct: Along with 100,000 other nostalgic (or curious) Seattleites, we bid farewell to the viaduct during an event that allowed pedestrians to walk its length for the first and only time.

Feb. 11, Snowpocalypse: Fighting cabin fever during many days of snow, I got some rare practice sketching the white stuff through every window.

3/16/19 Kite Hill

March 16, Kite Hill, Gas Works Park: After our record-breaking cold winter, it seemed like the whole city was out and about on this brilliant, sunny day.

June 30, Gas Works Park USk celebration: Although I’ve sketched at Gas Works Park many times, both alone and with Urban Sketchers Seattle, this sketch outing was extra-special: We celebrated our 10^th anniversary of sketching together.

 

6/30/19 Gas Works Park USk celebration

7/1/19 cement mixer at my friends' house

July 1, driveway renovation: My friends in the Greenwood neighborhood invited me over to sketch the heavy equipment and activity around their driveway renovation project.

7/25/19 Amsterdam symposium

July 25, Amsterdam symposium thumbnails: There’s nothing special about these thumbnails I made in Norberto Dorantes’ workshop, but they evoke the beginning of the blistering, triple-digit heatwave we endured during the four days of the Amsterdam symposium. Sketching in that record-breaking heat was unforgettable.

July 30, Delft canal: A few days after the symposium, we wound down in quiet Delft, where I sat in tranquility to sketch a canal. As much as I adore graphite, I use it only when I know I can take my time. This sketch reminds me of how relaxing and comfortable it was after the intensity and heat of Amsterdam.

 

7/30/19 Delft

8/11/19 taiko concert

Aug. 11, taiko conference: In Portland for a family event, we got to attend a taiko conference, where the percussionists seemed to infuse my brush pen with their dynamic energy.

Aug. 27, Minnesota State Fair: Cows, chickens, sheep and the butter head sculptor I’d been wanting to catch for years – they were all mine to sketch at the Minnesota State Fair! Meeting up with Roz Stendahl and other Twin Cities Sketchers made the day even more fun.

 

8/27/19 Butter head sculptor, Minnesota State Fair

Oct. 17, Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur: The main reason this sketch is so memorable was the terrific high winds I had to battle for the duration. My mouth and shoes filled with sand, I was happy to be done!

10/17/19 Pfeiffer Beach