Chittenden - aka Ballard - Locks

Though rain was finally predicted, it held off until our sketch outing was finished. A larger group than usual attended the Ballard Locks sketch outing today.  There were some first time sketchers and even a couple new sketchers moving here... one from Boston and one from NYC! And there was a visitor from Spokane.  Welcome all! 


I did quite a bit of wandering around before I sat down to do my only sketch of the day. I decided to go big... or at least larger than usual. My sketchbook today was 9x12 inches. This is the second time I've sketched the railway bridge open.

"The Salmon Bay Bridge, also known as Bridge No. 4, is a single-leaf bascule bridge spanning across Salmon Bay and connecting Magnolia/Interbay to Ballard in Seattle, Washington. ... Built in 1914 by the Great Northern Railway, it has an opening span of 61 meters (200 feet) and has two tracks."




I asked for the stamps at the Corps of Engineers visitor center. 

There are several sketchers not in the group photo as they had to leave early!  I think we were at least 30 today. 


Thanks to Dan's son, Colin, for taking the group photo!

A Change in Weather at Ballard Locks

9/17/17 Salmon Bay Bridge at the Ballard Locks

The first real rain in weeks was predicted for today – just in time for USk Seattle’s outing at the Ballard Locks. If and when the rain did come, I was planning to duck inside the fish ladder area. By 10:30 a.m., though, the sun was still darting in and out of clouds, so I went to the parking lot on the south side of the Ship Canal. Although I’ve sketched the Salmon Bay Bridge several times, I’d never been able to catch it in the open position. My luck stayed with me – the sun came out just long enough to put in those shadows on the bridge. 

9/17/17 Ballard Locks

Crossing the canal again, I stopped at the Locks at a busy spot – not just busy with pedestrians, but also visually busy. I have no idea what this yellow thing is in the foreground, but it apparently has a nautical purpose. In any case, it was just the right time to initiate my new Stillman & Birn Nova gray-toned sketchbook.  

We got an excellent USk turnout on this iffy-weather morning! And fortunately for us, the rain waited until my drive home to finally start falling. 

Ballard Locks Centennial

7/6/17 Salmon Bay Bridge

When I was a kid, one of the places my dad always wanted to take first-time Seattle visitors to was the Ballard Locks. He was apparently fascinated with the need to bring the water levels of Lake Washington, Lake Union and Puget Sound to the same level so that boats could travel among them and the locks’ engineering that made this possible. Standing at the edge of the locks, watching the boats pass through, he would go on and on about this marvel of technology, what it must have been like to construct it, blah blah blah. I was endlessly bored with my dad’s monologue, which I had to listen to every time we visited. I could always think of dozens of places our visitors would most certainly prefer to see, such as Woodland Park Zoo or the Space Needle.

Earlier this week the Ballard Locks (officially called the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks) celebrated its centennial with much media fanfare. Although I didn’t attend the festivities, I decided to go over there this beautiful morning. I’ve sketched the locks themselves previously, even at night as the Christmas ships passed through, but today I focused on the Salmon Bay Bridge, built shortly before the locks opened, which dominates the view. (I sketched a similar view a couple of years ago.)

Now with greater appreciation for what was, indeed, a marvel of technology a century ago (and which has served the region’s water traffic ever since), I also have greater appreciation for my dad’s blah blah blah. In fact, I have heard myself repeat it to Seattle visitors that I bring to the locks. 

Happy 100^th birthday, Ballard Locks!

Salmon Bay Bridge

7/3/15 Salmon Bay Bridge from the Ballard Locks

Although I’ve sketched at the Ballard Locks a few times on my own, and although I think Urban Sketchers Seattle has gone as a group at least a couple of times, it had been nearly three years since I had joined them there. I vividly recall that sketch outing in September 2012 for at least a couple of reasons. For one, I had joined USk Seattle only a few months before, and I was dazzled and stunned by all the amazing sketches I saw at the outings being casually tossed down at the sharing time alongside the likes of mine! (Not much has changed; I still feel this way.)

Secondly, Tommy Kane had been visiting Seattle, and Gabi had organized the Locks outing for him. I had long admired Tommy’s quirky blog and unique take on urban sketching, so I was looking forward to meeting him, but I figured anything he chose to sketch would be way beyond me. Indeed, Tommy had sketched the Salmon Bay Bridge, a view that I had found so utterly intimidating that it was easy to dismiss it for another time. Way later. Maybe years.

During my visits to the Locks since then, including as recently as May, I somehow managed to evade the more challenging scenes and subjects. It’s easy to do because there are always people, birds and other smaller subjects hanging out at the Locks.

This morning as I greeted the other sketchers, I didn’t give myself any particular challenge as I sometimes do. In fact, I wasn’t thinking about any of this. The year-round breeze that makes the Locks chilly much of the year was a welcome relief in the soon-to-be blazing sun (the temperature is 89 now at 3 p.m.). It was summer sketching at its best. Walking a few feet from our meeting location, I spotted a great view of the Salmon Bay Bridge. I knew it would be challenging – indeed, intimidating – but I was feeling too good to care.

Like I said: Summer sketching at its best.

It was a great turnout this morning! Happy 4th of July holiday!