You Am I

I saw one of the best rock and roll bands this country has ever produced last night at the enmore. Normally I'm quite satisfied with drawing one or two sketches, but I felt compelled to do more. They played two albums worth, so I had plenty of time to sketch. Here is a selection, for more please visit my blog here. Cheers, Meegan

Drumming in Abu Dhabi

In February I was given the exciting opportunity to travel to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to play with TaikOz. Most of the time we had rehearsals and the actual performances. But I managed to sketch inbetween everything and in the afternoons when we had time to ourselves. Here is a selection of my sketches, if you would like to see the rest please click on this link to my blog post.

Cheers,
Meegan.

It's a long time since I've been able to go out sketching, but Saturday was the day to ease back into it.  We went to Darling Harbour near the Maritime Museum - one of my favourite spots. First we wandered round aimlessly deciding what to sketch. We tried going down near some of the smaller boats, but it proved to be a floating pontoon I stepped onto and the chop on the harbour nearly threw me off my feet.
Finally we just plonked down right where we were. There's something to see everywhere you look in that area. Strangely, right in front of us was this fire hydrant. With my fascination for sketching machinery, off I went.
It was a cloudy day - great sketching weather in fact. It was hot, so had the sun been out we would have been scrambling for shade.

Is the Borromini Bear also tired?

Reading all the correspondence coming in from the Symposium I now wish I was there ... but my son wouldn't change his wedding. Arriving over there tied and being hot sounds like a recipe for lots and lots of water!
Maybe the bear could do with some shade:

Saturday's winter

Was cold yesterday afternoon .... warmer inside though. Harder than I thought this depth thing.

Warmer Inside

Australian War Memorial

On my last day in Canberra I visited the War Memorial. The last time I was here I ran out of time, so I gave it most of one day - but it still wasn't enough. My whole intention was to draw and tried to keep reading the descriptions for another visit, but it was too interesting and displayed so well that is was hard not to absorb whatever I could. I limited myself to 1-2 drawings per room, but I still only made it to the WWII exhibitions. How I wish there was an express bus from Sydney straight to the War Memorial every week.

I also loved the combination of my leaf green, Mustard and Iron Grey Inktense pencils and stuck with them through this visit. This first sketch, however, is with watercolour and indian ink.

More Bus Stops

This first sketch was at Enmore park, the sandstone structure to the right is a bus stop shelter. I found the roof or ceiling to be really odd and it was hard to get the right perspective.
This is along Marrickville Rd at a bus stop opposite the Fire Station and Town Hall. They've always been there but looking at my drawing, it looks more like something I might see in America?? As I was drawing this a young high school student was waiting for her bus, and we started chatting. She did a bit of drawing herself and goes to the same high school I attended. Another lady stopped by to have a chat with us as well.

I completed this sketch on the same walk as the above drawing. My brain was a little fried from all the architectural detail from the town hall, so I found some trees. However, I think that will be next major challenge - to spend more time looking at and deciphering architecture and the best way to present it on paper. In the distance are some tennis courts.

Sunset over Sydney

I headed out as part of the welcoming committee for a fellow sketcher from the US, thinking what gawd-awful weather we've been having lately and that we weren't going to get a few hours to sketch outdoors. But just when you think you have mother nature pegged, it turned out to be a perfect evening with a beautiful sunset thrown in. I tried to capture all the reflections on the sails, but they kept changing all the time.

Zoo - Day Four

We had to wait a while for our fourth day at the zoo due to all the rain we've been having.

Every time we see something different. I'd never seen a turkey dance before. He put on quite a display while we had our lunch. Eventually some turkey-girls turned up, but it took a while.

Last time the spider monkeys weren't so cooperative, but this one stayed near us for some time. A grandma and toddler came along and she said to him, 'What do you think the monkey's name is?' the boy didn't answer, but I decided he was called Ginge.

As it was quite near Christmas, it was much hotter than previous days. We were looking for a place we'd seen before with beautiful water birds. It took us some time and we were very hot by the time we found them. Worth it though! That's why the map is there - for the next time I go.

Something weird is happening with the spacing.

Black Tea by Tim Mooney

I am trying to give up the use of milk. So black tea for a while.