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...
Another one on a boozy theme, this one is The Albion Hotel on Hobson Street in town. I've wanted to do this place for a while now, it's such a classic old pub (1873) but looks kind of precarious stuck out on the corner without a neighbour - it almost looks like it's going to tumble into the street. I've accentuated this with some screwy perspective and a definite lean!
I suspect the original neighbour was another elegant old Victorian gone the way of the wrecking ball. Does anyone know what used to exist next door before it became a vacant lot?
By the way, this is another sketch destined for the Urban Sketchers fundraiser exhibition at the Ackland Museum, Raleigh, North Carolina starting the 16th of July. Make sure you check it out if you happen to be in Raleigh next month. (note: that's Ackland not Auckland!)
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