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 always enjoy sketching at Waikumete Cemetery, in Glen Eden, our largest cemetery and a sort of catalogue of New Zealand history. So much fun to capture crumbling masonry, moulding marble and rusty ironwork set amongst the lush green grounds.
Waikumete Cemetery is officially now 'full', so you will find it rammed with ornate headstones, mausoleums and memorials to unfortunate world events and their dead such as the 1918 influenza epidemic, dedicated areas for servicemen from both World Wars and even some of my family have plots here.
As one of our largest parks it also features acres of bush, and even a stream, so its worth a visit just to walk and enjoy some peace. This is the Chapel of Faith in the Oaks behind the headstones above. All sketched with Urban Sketchers Auckland the visit gave me an opportunity to continue experimenting with a more painterly approach to sketching.
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