The Urbansketchers group met at the Haywood bandstand in Queen Alexandra park in the city's west end. The neighbourhood has gradually gone from genteel old houses to highrise apartments in the last few decades, and as people lose their connection with the ground, they also lose connections with the neighbourhood's past. A local group is trying to restore some of that, with evenings of story-telling about the area, and reinvigorating the remaining historical features. The bandstand is a prominent one. It was built in 1914 as the social centre of the area, and restored about 30 years ago, but seems neglected these days. Reading about the park, I saw that there was an old Vancouver law that only "religious and military" music could be played in public on Sundays - just in case anyone thought the conflation of those two things was strictly a foreign custom...
In the first picture, I tried to capture the context of the bandstand among the park's beautiful old trees, and then the park itself nestled among the apartment buildings. It was a challenge to try to draw attention to a dark brown building in the deep shade. The second picture I tried to do quickly and spontaneously - this is not such a great idea with complicated perspective. It looks like the building is in urgent need of another restoration. Or maybe, as Lea commented, it is just inviting people to climb in? And, finally, being springtime in Vancouver, the palm trees were blooming, so I had to draw them too.
