Twelve days on Norfolk Island

I am just back from a wonderful two week trip to the remote Norfolk Island which is 2.5 hours flight from Sydney and 1.5 hours flight from Auckland. It is a stunningly beautiful island with a fascinating history and the intention of my trip was to have a rest – a true vacation. This is something I rarely do these days as most of the time my trips are intensive sketching sessions. But the slow relaxed pace of the island, the lack of exciting tourist attractions and my own limited quota of three sketches per day meant that I only did a fraction of the sketching I would normally do.



There are a lot of fascinating things about the island both its history (settled by the descendants of the mutiny on the Bounty) and the unique aspects of island life due to its remoteness but I was rather taken with one small part. The Kingston precinct includes a beautiful beach, a fishing pier, and constantly changing light a collection of historic colonial buildings - what more could a sketcher want? I returned to this area over and over again to sketch different aspects, different views and in different times of the day.


Another feature of the island is the native tree, the Norfolk pine tree. These majestic trees are everywhere and are a major part of the beauty of the island. I don't think I have ever had such a feast of beautiful subject matter from which to sketch.

I will just share a few of my sketches here in this post but you can find them all over on my blog. You can also find out a little bit more about the island (including photos) on this post and a little bit about how I enjoyed totally unplugging from social media for the entirety of my trip.


One of the major parts of my trip was the fact that I took an untested sketchbook. I was given a Pentalic sketchbook by Stephanie Bower and I thought it would be a great occasion to use it. I had a few challenges initially which I described in detail on this post but managed to develop a way of using the book to suit the way I paint. Thankfully I took an emergency sketchbook as well which gave me a chance to do some loose sketches while I worked out how to get the results I wanted in the Pentalic book.  I have just done a detailed review comparing the Pentalic paper with the moleskine paper on my blog here.




I really got addicted to this particular grouping of buildings around the Kingston Pier area, the space between the buildings was really interesting and I did at least one sketch every day I was in the area.


The most famous Norfolk pine tree on the island is referred to as Lone Pine - I think this is a poetic symbol of how this little island supports itself in the middle of the ocean.

Despite how remote the island is, I am pleased to report that there is one urban sketcher on the island. Bronny  from Adelaide moved there year ago so it was great to have someone to hang out with towards the end of my stay.

I do hope to return there one day – it would be a great venue for a group sketching trip.

My Melbourne Sketchbook

Last month I was in Melbourne for 12 days on a sketching vacation. I feels like a long time ago because it always seems to take weeks for me to get around to scanning and posting all my sketches. So finally, I can now share them all with you.


Here they are in a single image

and here in an Issuu version so you can flip through every page.


As always with a trip to Melbourne I managed to sketch Flinders Street Station(FSS) a FEW times (this is an understatement!)… in fact I do try to sketch it every day I pass by it - one day I sketched it three times!  The opening image was my last sketch for the trip just before I headed to the airport and this ink sketch was done immediately after arriving.


I also sketched it from other angles - from looking down one of Melbourne's famous laneways and from the other side of the Yarra River. Yep! I am have a chronic FSS problem!


I continued my recent trend of sketching bigger street views in ink only - East Melbourne in a grey ink and Swan St Richmond in brown ink. Both were done using a Sailor pen with a Fude nib.


I also visited a lot of cafes and drank a lot of coffee. The coffee in Melbourne is amazing, however I think the tea is better in Sydney. Many of these cafe visits were in the great company of Urban Sketchers - Chris Haldane from Sydney, Paul Wang from Singapore or any number of the amazing local Melbourne Urban Sketchers. We were certainly looked after very well!


The biggest thing about this trip for me was the fact that my sketching was limited. I know that it doesn't look that way from the quantity that I achieved, but my left hand was out of action for a few days (recovering from an injection that I had a few days before the trip). As a result I did a number of sketches using my other hand (right hand)!


It was a lot of fun, although slightly frustrating, and I realised that most of my sketching skills have to do with my vision and the decisions I make rather than the execution, so having limited control using my other hand didn't make quite as much impact as I thought it would. It made me ponder whether my eye-hand coordination skills were transferrable between left and right and whether it was simply a matter of control - something that was improving every time I tried! It was also a lot easier to paint that it was to draw (this sketch of my food was all right hand!)

If you want to read more about my trip please visit my blog. As always I learn so much when I go on a sketching trip and come home with new ideas - these are summarised in my Seven Reflections from my Melbourne trip.

Stressed out sketching

 

I got some unexpected time to sketch the other week when my car died as I was rushing around doing a few chores. It wasn't broken down as such... I have a problem with my fuel gauge and know not to trust it when my trip computer says 150km left...but this time it was reading 194km and I was heading straight for the petrol station. Only a few metres to the crest of the hill and I could have cruised to safety!

Needless to say I am finally getting around to getting that gauge fixed now!

I love the way that sketches can express the mood you are in...

Cockatoo Island

I have been to Cockatoo Island twice in the last few weeks. Once with the Sydney Sketch CLub and the second time on my own. Love that place so much and never get sick of visiting it. So much to draw- either grand vistas or small details.

I have made to decision recently to start a large sketchbook to use on my sketching days out here at home. I normally only use this A4 sized sketchbook when I travel as it is heavy to carry. But it is so good to have the freedom to work larger.

 

My sketches from day in Newcastle: Liz Steel

So here are my sketches from our great day in Newcastle.

It was impossible not to spend the first hour or so talking - with so many new people to meet and  good sketching friends to catch up with. And therefore it was a little hard to settle down to sketch - so I  did a number of quick loose sketches of the Customs House tower and the old Post office.

The afternoon was more relaxing as a smaller group headed down to Queens Wharf area -such a beautiful day and a great place to sketch. I hope to be able to come back to Newcastle again soon.

I was working in a new Stillman & Birn Gamma book and also sheets of Cold Press Fabriano - more about it on my blog

USK SYD at Cockatoo Island

We finished off the year back at Cockatoo Island on a glorious day. Here are 2 of my sketches from this morning.

Once again a wonderful group of sketchers turned up and it was great to see everyones work at lunch. I had to rush off but I hope that others stayed on in the afternoon.
Here are a few photos from the day....

Reminder- Jan 11 we are planning to go to Newcastle for the day. More details will be posted next week. Hope everyone has a wonderful Xmas and summer break!

USKSYD Smoked out at Milsons Point!

Today we met at Milsons Point on a day when the smoke from bushfires (and back burning) in the surrounding areas of Sydney) had a big impact on the air quality and also our ability to see the subject that we were sketching!

A group sketches meet - some sketched the harbour views and some sketched Luna Park- I did a bit of both.

I started with the entrance to Luna Park which has a special moustache as part of Movember.

I then tackled the Opera House... seems I can't come to Milsons Point without doing a sketch of the most iconic building in Sydney.

I am currently using the new zeta sketchbook from Stillman and Birn which is a beautiful smooth paper and is SO lovely to use with ink. So I thought it was a good excuse to get some of my non-lamy fountain pens out and test them. My hero and sailor pens aren't flowing so well for me so the smooth paper really helps. I love mixing it up and trying new stuff out!

Another enjoyable USKSYD event - next month Dec 7 at Cockatoo Island again! More details soon.

41st Sketchcrawl at Hyde Park Sydney

 What a great day we had on Saturday in Hyde Park. Was great to have members from Urban Sketchers, Sydney Sketch Club and Sydeny Sketch Meet all together for one morning.

Really great to meet lots of new people who love sketching and the collection of sketches put together was very impressive. Always so inspiring to see the range of work (and it is nice to have to take a few photos to fit them all in)

As usual is was more a chat-crawl for me but I did manage a number of sketches and stayed till after 4pm (though I don't think we did much sketching in the last hour!) Here are my sketches in one image- pop over to my blog if you want to see them in full.

BTW next USK SYD event will be Saturday 02 Nov - details will be posted soon.

Barcelona Symposium Debrief

Monthly USKSYD meeting this month was a BCN debrief!

Alissa, Chris and I shared our symposium experiences and described the workshops we did and what we got out it. Here is a combination image of all the sketches I did during the workshops (I didn't do anything on other pages or in another sketchbook …but most of the notes have been added since I got home)

It was then lunchtime …so no sketching got done as a group today. Still it was great to get the USK buzz going and have friends to share our experiences with (non sketching friends don't quite understand what the fuss is about!) It was a lovely warm day of about 30C so lovely to spend a morning in the gardens! Wow - warm weather for early spring.

On the way out I did a quick crazy sketch… couldn't come to the Botanic Gardens and not sketch! Then I had to remember to vote on the way home!  I was planning to sketch the queue to vote but at 2.30pm there wasn't queue at all (so no sketch)…

Sub-urban sketching

pardon the pun... but I am just starting a new series on my  Architecture blog that involves sketching 'boring' suburban buildings and explaining some fundamental approaches to sketching architecture. More here

Also, I am going to be running a 1 day workshop of Sketching Architecture in Melbourne on Saturday 14 Sept - there are only a few places still available. More details here

Winter at the Beach

Isn't it wonderful when we have such stunning weather in winter?
Warm enough to be at the beach and even put my feet in the water.

Two sketches I did today at Edwards/ Balmoral Beach today - the rest are on my blog

A beautiful day at Cockatoo island

Sketches and photos from a beautiful morning at Cockatoo Island with USK SYD last Saturday - as usual great bunch of sketchers and inspiring chats!

Sketchcrawl in Melbourne

Earlier in the month I was in Melbourne for a weeks holiday - sketching as much as I can as usual. I timed my visit with the international sketch crawl and it was a great opportunity to meet a whole bunch of wonderful sketchers in Melbourne at the one time.



Here is a photo of the happy bunch and group photo of the sketches done on the day.

Exciting news for all Melbourne sketchers - there are plans in the making for starting regular Urban Sketchers events …so watch this space for more news.

And finally here is my full book of Melbourne sketches ... I did a number of posts on my blog sharing my addiction with sketching Flinders St station and all the various water soluble tools I used during the week. I love Melbourne SO MUCH - and cant wait to get back again!

The pink building in Newtown

It is nearly impossible not to want to draw this magnificent example of the architecture (and services) of the back lanes of Newtown. This was my effort from todays wonderful (but rain affected) USK SYD event.

Cranes and Machinery at Cockatoo Island

My sketches from a wet and wild and cold(for an Australia summer) day at Cockatoo with the USK SYD group. We were going to have a crane crawl today but it was just too wet (at times)...I ended up sitting insde the big sheds and sketching the machinery.



Great day - thanks to all that braved the weather! We had a lot of fun...but all got very wet feet ....