Trip to Canberra and Adelaide

Back in March, another urban sketcher, kaz e dru, and I took a trip to Canberra and Adelaide to see the Toulouse-Lautrec and Turner exhibitions in each respective city. While I didn't draw anything from the two exhibitions, we found other places, especially outdoors, to draw.

CANBERRA

As always, the Australian War Memorial provides ample inspiration for any sketcher. This trip we stayed outside and had a look around the Sculpture Garden.

ADELAIDE

We spent more time in Adelaide as we had both never visited this city before. It is so different from any Australian capital I've been to. It's close to being pure vintage, particularly its architecture. We spent a day at the Botanic Gardens and I painted the Palm House a few times.

Then another day I ventured out and around the city and did my own sketchcrawl.

Another day was spent at the zoo. Always a challenge to draw moving animals but always up for it.

We ended the trip by having a wonderful, scrummy meal at Ruby Red Flamingo in North Adelaide. A very laid back atmosphere and very colourful setting.

This is only a small selection of my sketches from this trip. I cannot upload them all here as there are too many, but if you would like to see the rest and with some detail on the hows and whys of my artwork, please click here and visit my blog.

Thanks,

Meegan

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.

Zoo Day 3

On our third trip to the zoo, we managed to sketch some animals that hadn't been co-operating the previous times. First the bongo, who I love for the paint dribbles on his coat. Next to him were the zebras. The keeper came with brunch for them, so they stayed still, except for raising & lowering their heads.

The zoo was reminding me of nonsense rhymes & old songs I knew as a child, so the bongo is sharing his page with one of them. I don't think I actually knew there was an animal called a bongo till now.

We queued up to see the tiger cubs who were newly on show, but couldn't sketch in there because of all the people. You can see the photo on my blog.


We then sketched the thar who have their own personal mountain. They live in little nooks and crannies there.You may think that I have spelt it incorrectly on one page, however the zoo calls them tahr and I have always known them as thar.
I onced worked at Mount Cook in New Zealand. There are chamois and thar in the national park there. I was a bit thrown at first because I thought the zoo had got it wrong, but Wikipedia tells me both are OK. The woolliness of their coats varies a great deal. I don't know if it relates to seniority but it looks as if it does.

Last, we visited my favourite boys - the lemurs. I do hope they find them some girlfriends. I'd love to see some baby lemurs. I found some wonderful videos on youtube of John Cleese with the lemurs in Madagascar. Do watch them. It is such a credit to John Cleese that he'd do such a daunting trip for the benefit of these beautiful animals.

Day Two at the Zoo

The second time we went to the zoo we had a PLAN. We saw the barbary sheep while leaving on the first day, so we went straight there to capture these gorgeous calm looking animals. They have long hair hanging from a line that goes from under their chins to between their front legs. Some of them also have dreadlocks, which seem to have been created by moulting and maybe some rolling on the ground (though I didn't see that).

Next we went to draw the spider monkeys, but they weren't co-operating and said 'no portraiture please' and retreated to the other side of their enclosure.

We also saw the baby tigers who were newly on display, but no chance to sketch due to the queue of people waiting to see them. The peacock danced on the floral clock for us too (you can see him on my blog) but we needed lunch.

After lunch we decided to draw the cassowary. One of them had been posing nicely prior to lunchtime, but after lunch decided to stroll around. These amazing birds are native to Australia but not around here ! I'd never seen one before. Part of his bony headdress is a gold metallic colour, so I had to get the acrylics out when I got home to put some of that on.

All this sketching things that are moving is great practice.

Taronga Park Zoo

Recently Taronga Park Zoo had a voucher in the Sunday paper for two-for-the-price-of-one. I quickly bought extra papers because the zoo admission is rather expensive and I hadn't been for a very long time. So I've been three times already though not caught up on the blogging.

We had a perfect day for it. The zoo is on a hillside overlooking the harbour with the bridge and Opera House across the water in the distance. The giraffes have a wonderful view.

Next we visited the elephants. There were two mother and baby pairs, but, just becoming accustomed to drawing animals, we learnt that they don't always cooperate. They stood in the shade some distance away with a posture that said 'no portraiture'.

Going to the zoo brought back nonsense rhymes and songs I learnt in my childhood, and some of them made their way into my sketchbook.

We just missed the gorilla keeper talk, which was probably a good thing, as the zoo was stroller city that day, and the shrieking can become a bit wearing. The gorillas posed nicely for us. I like 'The Thinker' there in the middle. The one on the top left was the boss, though his expression was less benevolent that it looks in my sketch.
From there we had lunch on a lawn with a beautiful orange tree just begging to be sketched. After lunch I found my very favourite animals of the whole zoo - the ringtail lemur. This little cutie came and sat right in front of me, with his paws up against the glass partition. There are five lemurs (all boys and cheeky with it) and I could watch them all day. They walk around with their tails held up behind them like question marks. Just amazing. John Cleese seems to be the patron of all lemurs, and there are some amazing clips of him in Madagascar with lemurs on youtube.