Why sketch?

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...

Another old villa bites the dust.


This is Pane & Vino, the pizzeria on Williamson Street – the one with the incredibly ornate floral fretwork along the veranda. I caught the old villa as it was being prepped for the removal truck. The restaurant survives in the old Firestation over the road, but the villa is history.

The 'wonderful' unitary plan provides absolutely zero protection for historic houses so they are disappearing at a great rate. Here are just a few that have disappeared over the last few months;
113 Jervois Road
537 Parnell Road
9 St Stephens
1 Brighton Road
253 Ponsonby Road
20 Williamson Ave.

Comments