I drew, on-location, a cottage on Park Street, Lindisfarne, a suburb of Hobart on the eastern side of the Derwent River.
An on-location urban sketch of a cottage on Park Street, Lindisfarne, Tasmania
Just around the corner from this cottage, is a great view of the Tasman Bridge and kunanyi (Mt Wellington).
View of Lindisfarne Bay, with the Tasman Bridge and kunanyi in the background.
The importance of this bridge to Hobartians was accentuated a couple days ago when a truck rolled onto its side on the bridge and blocked traffic from both directions for hours. This one incident brought all of Hobart’s traffic to a stand still. What a mess!
An on-location, from start to finish, urban sketch that I did a couple of years ago on a windy day at Lindisfarne Bay, Tasmania. I like the looseness and freedom that the windy, cold conditions encouraged. I did the entire drawing and painting in about an hour.
The Australian white ibis, due to its increasing presence in urban settings and its past-time of rummaging in rubbish bins with its long, curved beak, has acquired the “bin chicken” or “tip turkey” nicknames. It is becoming an icon of Australia’s popular culture despite that some of the population view them as a pest and aren’t too enamoured with their new-found hobby.
The Australian white ibis is a native Australian bird.
When you “forget” your towel, you appreciate the “kind” offer to share a towel.
Drawn with an Artline pen. I gave one of the emus hairy legs. (lol)
Inktober Challenge’s Day 12 prompt word is “Forget” and Day 13 is “Kind”. It’s a bit of a stretch but I just couldn’t think of anything else. We’re almost halfway there! 🙂
Day 2 of the Inktober Challenge. The prompt word for today is “scurry”. I associate this word with squirrels, so that’s what I drew. I’ve drawn my squirrels with an Artline pen.
Drawn from the Hobart, Tasmania terminal, while waiting for our plane.
After arriving on Friday, we wandered around and settled for a bite to eat in one of the laneways in the city. This was our view from our eating spot.
View from our eating spot in Meyers Lane, Melbourne
initial drawing, Meyers Lane
Meyers Lane’s view
The next day started by a visit to the South Melbourne Market and then exploring St Kilda, including this cool community garden.
cool sculptures in various gardeners’ patches
I love worms too 🙂
I love buttons for art and decorating. 🙂
The visit to St. Kilda ended with sketching a duplex that caught my eye on Park Street. I love the roofline decorative tiles so many of the older houses have in this area. On Park Street itself, there were quite a few raised garden beds in front of houses.
One of the first exhibition picture on display is Picasso’s second-ever etching titled “Le Repas Frugal”, 1904.
Two of Picasso’s paintings of his first wife, Olga Khokhlova. Despite the Spanish flavour of the 1917 painting, Olga is from Russia, a ballet dancer, with Ukrainian origins. I find it interesting that she is depicted with quite big hands and feet in the first painting. From 1919 to 1929, Olga received over 500 letters from her mother and sister, whom she didn’t see.
“The Reader” 1920 oil on canvas
Olga in Armchair by Pablo Picasso, 1917
“Portrait of a woman” by Pablo Picasso, 1938, oil on canvas Maar and Picasso became lovers and intellectual confidants. Maar was the inspiration for many portraits, including this 1938 canvas
Picasso’s “The Kiss” 1921 oil on canvas
“Weeping woman” oil on canvas by Pablo Picasso, 1937
Pablo Picasso 1881-1973 “Massacre in Korea” 1951 oil on plywood Picasso painted this work in reaction to the Korean War. Nothing in this painting specifically ties to Korea, not the landscape or people. Picasso said that when he thinks of war he does not think of a particular trait, only that of monstrosity. I agree and think this should be applied to all wars, including the current war being waged on Ukraine.
“The Bay of Cannes” 1958 oil on canvas
These are only a fraction of the paintings on display. After the exhibition, we found a spot to sketch the renowned Flinders Station. I was settling nicely into the zone, then the rain disturbed my happy space.
My weekend in Melbourne finished with the fairy tale magic of Cinderella.
Trust that your week is is travelling along magically.
I felt so inspired and motivated when I left the house but once I arrived at our monthly Hobart urban sketch meet, the inspiration had exited somewhere along the way. I wandered around looking and discounting buildings: too complicated, will take too long, too exposed to the wind, too cold, no where to sit and more excuses were applied to the various sites under consideration.
I finally settled on drawing the entrance of the newly opened hotel on Murray Street, in the city. I drew it standing up with my book awkwardly balancing on my open left hand. The unsteadiness of the book contributed to looseness and wobbliness of the lines. Usually I avoid including cars, but because this one was blocking part of the view of the entrance, I felt compelled to attempt drawing it.
My approximately half an hour drawing of 12 Murray Street, Hobart, Tasmania I drew some loose guide lines with a watercolour pencil and then drew the rest with a Fude pen.
We were lucky enough to have an urban sketching meet-up on the grounds of the Government House in Hobart, Tasmania, thanks to Dennis Pang for organising.
My usual approach to tackling a building when I’m drawing on location is to start with some loose guidelines using a coloured watercolour pencil and then adding ink. Usually I add the watercolour paint at home.
a section at the back of Government House
photo of the section I attempted to draw on the day
When I attempted to draw this front part of the Government House, I flipped my approach and went with paint first. It looked terrible but it is surprising how much it improves when you add ink. I worked into the picture at home with an Artline pen.
Government House tower
It was a lovely and fun day. I hope I have the opportunity to draw on the grounds of the Government House again.
Rain was forecasted but that didn’t happen until late in the day and the amount was hardly worth mentioning. Salamanca Market enjoyed blue skies and possibly this was the reason for the sudden significant increase of stall holders. It looked like pre-COVID again, but the numbers allowed into the market is still restricted, therefore, less people visiting each stall.
I had a couple, with their friend from Adelaide, who was finally able to visit them. She was carrying her Salamanca Saturday tote bag that her friends had bought and posted to her. She bought four Christmas greeting cards.
A visitor from Burnie, Tasmania, bought “Fairy wrens”, “Lazy Days” and “Spiky bunk beds” prints and the “Salamanca Saturdays” and “Salamanca Fresh” cushion covers. I took my resource photo of the Salamanca Market scene from the opposite end of the market that my stall site is at (site 30) because I wanted to paint the historic sandstone buildings and kunanyi/Mt. Wellington. I took the photo when there were up to 353 stalls on a Saturday. https://www.salamancamarket.com.au/Home
Seven-year-old Lucy, from Adelaide, bought an “All Ears” greeting card (heavily discounted) with her own money to give to her friend for her birthday. The birthday party was taking place while she was having her Tasmanian holiday. Her mother bought her two prints. She really wanted three, but they managed to settle on two.
Two young ladies, also from Adelaide, purchased “Tu-whit & Tu-whoo” and “Bonnie & Me!” prints. They were flying home tonight but had one last Tassie adventure planned. They were to do a 90-minute scenic sea plane flight at 2pm! They were a little nervous about air sickness. I hope it all went well and they enjoyed the views from above.
My sketch of the quaint and historic Weaver’s Cottage in Oatlands, where wool is spun and being woven into fabulous and beautiful products right beside the front door, as you enter into the shop.
The actual shop isn’t wonky but my drawing sure is! But to quote Liz Steel, “embrace the wonkiness”.
The Weaver’s Cottages Studio in Oatlands, now stocking PJ Paintings greeting cards and A-5 sized prints
Oatlands is a picturesque, buzzing little town off the Midlands Highway, Tasmania. A brand new, large and fabulous gallery has just opened on the main street too!
The Unfurling Artist: journalising creative journeying 