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...
This house on the corner at Hepburn and Smith Streets in Freemans Bay was sketched on site in 2014. I sat in the front yard sketching the dilapidated old building thinking she was likely to ultimately end up demolished.
It's a white house and sketched in summer the bright light made it look even whiter, also, drawing all those twiddly details had done my head in and taken so long that I decided not to colour it. I'm pleased I didn't because today I've coloured it according to it's colourful history rather than it's actual colour. A lot more fun I reckon, wonky perspective and all.
It does have some history too, apparently owned by a mayor of Auckland at some stage, it was a lodge for Maori girls for 70 years (called Te Kainga Aroha), and the current owners have moved it sideways 15 metres before restoring it. I guess it;s going to be around for a while longer yet.
Comments