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 in Palmerston North last week, chained to a mac for 10 hours a day helping out on a project. I did manage to sneak out early one day though and grab a quick sketch in the square that I coloured that evening back in the motel.
It was really early, cold (for a soft jafa anyway) but quite pleasant. That tower with the glowing lights that make it look a bit like a giant Jim Speers artwork was working it's magic while it belted out chamber (?!) music to the ducks and their ducklings sheltering from the current duck shooting season.
This building stood out as interesting, if not a little surreal, and appears nestled in flax, cabbage trees and line of pou whenua from this angle. I've since discovered it's considered in some circles as one of New Zealand's ugliest buildings, but I'd disagree, it seems to suit the eclectic square nicely, even though it looks like it might lift off with a cargo of human specimens at any moment.
Comments