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 spotted the Phil Warren 2 on the ramp at Westhaven yesterday. It was a stunning morning and I was running early, so I figured I'd quickly sketch it. I've read about the incredible work they do cleaning up the Waitemata harbour, it's tributaries and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf so I reckon it's worthy of a sketch.
My sketching caught the eye of skipper Ben Harris who wandered over for a chat. He was getting it ready for a mission up the Whau River – the estuary that runs up past Lincoln Road to Glendene and Kelston and he would be meeting a group of locals up there for the morning's clean-up.
Ben says anyone can help out, so head over to their website for more details. According to their website, volunteers collected nearly 90,000 litres of litter in the first six months of 2011 alone
I'm planning to lend a hand at some stage – and take the sketchbook of course.
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