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...
Drawn from the back of the Treasure Island camp site at Pataua South. That's the estuary on the left and the ocean on the right with what I think is an eroding volcanic cone in the centre. The view from the top of the cone is pretty good too with views to the Poor Knights, Whangarei Heads and the Tutukaka coast.
The kids had a ball on the flying fox you can see in the foreground of this scrolling version below. Some friendly Pukekos kept me company while I sketched. What a great spot to camp!
The kids had a ball on the flying fox you can see in the foreground of this scrolling version below. Some friendly Pukekos kept me company while I sketched. What a great spot to camp!
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