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...
I was challenged to join the 5 Day Art Challenge on Facebook recently by Maki Tanaka and Gabi Campanario. Even though it was my first week back at work I figured why not give it a go. It turned out to be quite an incentive anyway and I banged out 3 new images most days in the small Moleskine sketchbook, supplemented by a few old ones). Here are a few of them below, the result of a cycle along the waterfront on a hot afternoon...
The waka Haunui is in Orakei at the moment (along with the Tongan waka Gaualofa) for some work. I did a super quick sketch of them back in 2011 here as it departed Auckland on it's voyage across the pacific. I think you would have to be pretty brave to sail one of these to North America!
The cruise liner Voyager of the Seas was heading out of the harbor, but it wasn't hanging around so I had to work pretty fast. I took a shot on the phone so I could fill in some details later. I know there are bigger vessels out there, but this one blocked Devonport completely from view!
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