Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
Did you know Auckland Art Gallery is opened evenings every Tuesday until 8pm? No excuses now not to check out the latest exhibition; Degas to Dali, a show on loan from the National Gallery of Scotland.
It's pretty impressive too with almost all the big names in modern art present. Here Degas' Study for the little 14 year old dancer in centre stage...
I think I found the people more fun to sketch though, great postures and expressions...
Warhols' Portrait of Maurice is surprising pretty nice, not just a screen print as I expected, but a screen print over thickly applied oil paint. Neat technique.
It's pretty impressive too with almost all the big names in modern art present. Here Degas' Study for the little 14 year old dancer in centre stage...
I think I found the people more fun to sketch though, great postures and expressions...
Warhols' Portrait of Maurice is surprising pretty nice, not just a screen print as I expected, but a screen print over thickly applied oil paint. Neat technique.




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