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...
If you are looking for a little bit of original style Auckland you can't go past Eden Terrace. It's a tiny suburb with much of it taken for motorways over the years, but you can still get a feeling for what it might have been. It's quite steep giving you excellent views like this one across to Arch Hill. It's also incredibly green! No doubt helped by the hot humid tropical weather we've been having.
I'm drawing lots of these old beauties for the upcoming Past to Present exhibition at Railway Street Gallery from the 16th March through to 3rd of April.
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