Rose bowlVictoria, BC, Canada

Lawn bowling sketch by Chandler O'Leary

In my travels over the years, I’ve stumbled upon (and sketched) a lot of games and sporting events in public places. Pick-up hockey games in Minnesota. Bocce tournaments in Italy. Hula hoop contests in New York. Surfing in California. Boat races in Seattle. Ice skaters in Boston. Golf in Nova Scotia. Even a game of street chess in Montreal. So I guess there really isn’t anything so unusual about lawn bowling (other than the fact that it’s not a popular sport where I come from), but these ladies just stopped me in my tracks that day. I can’t make heads or tails of the sport itself, so I think it must have been the setting that caught my eye. There was just something so appealing about a bunch of gals dressed in white, a perfectly manicured green lawn, and hot pink roses bordering the pitch. It was like the scene composed itself for me—or a snippet of some story from a bygone area, already written down for me to find.

Pin it!
Related Posts:
Ghost domes Summer of Solitude Home and away
Get a print of this sketch!

Comments (1)

  1. Mary Hammond

    I seem to remember having seen lawn bowling in Wright Park, back in the 1970s – at the 6th Ave. end of the park? Does anyone remember? I assume the group “aged out?”

    Love your drawing here. It looks like a very gentle (even genteel) sport, in lovely surroundings.

Comments are closed.