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...
With kids you're always on the lookout for interesting parks to let them blow off a bit of steam. We found J.F. Kennedy Park on the 'Shore', it's perched on a cliff and the kids tell me the view from the top of the climbing tree over the Hauraki Gulf is fantastic. I had about 15 minutes to sketch before they demanded I spin each one in those red cup looking things toward the bottom of the picture, trust me, they're terrific for bringing a greenish tinge to your childs face...
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