Why sketch?

posted by Murray Dewhurst on
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...
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Capturing summer in a concertina sketchbook

posted by Murray Dewhurst on
 
I finished my sketchbook just before Christmas. I have another grey book on the go that I could have used, but they're not so good for the material I was going to be sketching up north on a camping trip. 

So I took this A6 concertina sketchbook that's been kicking around for a year or two. I can't remember the brand (it has a blind debossed logo embedded into it's cloth cover, but it's a tad blurry so I can't tell what it says).
 
I quite enjoyed it, sketching in a concertina sketchbook is something I hadn't done before, but a lot of fun as it turns out.

We tried the camp at Hihi out this year. Nicely refurbished with lots of shady old trees to read (and sketch) under.

Hihi is only 20 minutes from Taupo Bay so we headed over several times - a great place for a surf.

Mangonui is on the other side of the harbour (it's an easy paddle or 15 minute drive). Famous for it's fish and chips, but I'd rather have a beer in the old pub with it's eccentric characters, parrot and memorabilia.

Some letterboxes at Hihi. I really liked the whare letterbox.

The Butlers Bay Whaling Museum is at Hihi too. Well worth a visit too. Times have certainly changed since dead sperm whales in various states of decay would have littered the bay!

Matai Bay at the end of Karikari peninsular is actually 2 bays and a really long white sandy beach, all equally stunning (with beaches like this there's really no need to visit Tahiti).

The old cottages in the Hihi camp are very sketchable.

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