Almost perfect afternoon

After some sad family news I got in the car this afternoon thinking I'd head into town and pluck up the courage to do a few furtive sketches out the window of some hip coffee shop. Instead I ended up in our very own Obs Lower Main Rd. And I even found a good parking spot, which happened to be outside Revolution Records. My prejudices as to what bikers who sell second hand vinyl would listen to on a Monday afternoon were challenged. The jazz spilling onto the pavement made me reluctant to leave the car (silly, didn't go in and ask what it was) - perfect music for my mood and a perfect view to draw. It was all about to fall in a heap when I discovered I had my sketch pad but nothing to draw with. But, lucky me, I was parked directly opposite the art supply shop. Good excuse to spend 20 minutes browsing, came out with paint, a new sketch book, and yes, a black ink pen and a pencil.


Back in the car:

Then, just to make my little Observatory visit complete, I popped across the road into the deli and did another sketch while sipping on an organic beetroot and orange juice.

Little ones

Here's what has been keeping me busy the last few weeks. They are all A5 size. I've quite enjoyed working on this small format, it's forced me to simplify images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 27 Bit of sunshine

I was preparing myself for yet another cold rainy day to finish off my long weekend, but it turned out to be sort of decent in patches. So, I was rescued from my urban sketcher's cabin fever with a trip to the nearby park this afternoon. The park's next to the bridge I love-hate, and I've been wanting to it draw for ages.


What I hate about this bridge is that it cuts our side of Obs in half. The houses on each side just peak over the top of it. Plus, it's dark and smelly and ugly. What I love (hmm love it too strong a word by anyway) about it is well, let's be practical, traffic would be worse than it already is without it. But that's not it really, it's the strong lines and shadows enhanced by the fact that it's too big for the space it occupies.


And then, I managed to get in a quick urban classic, of roof-tops, chimneys and TV-aerials before being called to balance out the see-saw. I am realising with all this Victorian architecture, inside and out, that I need to simplify it and eliminate the detail in order to achieve the effect I want - the patterns and shapes and how they relate to each other.

Day 20 Out and about again

Yesterday I had plenty of opportunity to sit down in front of something interesting with my sketch pad. Here's one of good old Crown Street.

And then, while working on this one, I noticed that this electricity pole / street lamp has aspirations of being a Russian cathedral. It's the only one in the street that has a fancy dome on top of it. So, I decided to draw it to officially recognise it's subtle individuality in the world of street lamps.


Later, we went for a walk on Sunset Beach. The afternoon light formed nice strong geometric shadows of the buildings the city centre across the bay.



I couldn't resist capturing the strong hulking shapes of the ships on the horizon.

Days 10 and 11

Day 10: Rooms in my house. I like the patterns made by walls and spaces in houses. This sketch doesn't quite show what I mean so well. I must do some more.


Day 11: I always enjoy the view behind our house early on a sunny morning, with these dark interesting shapes silhouetted against the just light sky.

Favourite views

I mentioned the other day that I have some favourite drawing spots. I also have some favourite views, strong landmarks that seem to crop up no matter where I seem to be sitting, like Table Mountain - NOT. Well yes, it is an example of this, it's not what I'm talking about here (in fact, don't get me started on that topic). In my part of the world, a big one is the flour siloes. Surprisingly, I don't find them ugly at all even though they're so huge and dominant. The factory buildings attached to them are old and quite beautiful - and all still in use.

Here they are on the horizon. They are fun to draw because of the strong vertical lines.




Close up, they can be rather looming.


I've got my eye on these siloes, so no doubt you'll see more of them.

Favourite spots

The problem with sketching gritty urban scenes is that you've got to actually sit in the gritty urban scene. The most visually inspiring places are often hard to get at. So, I am always on the look out for good views - places where I can sit, with my street-wise radar turned off, and draw. One of my current favourite spots is the studio where I go to Saturday painting classes. Out of every window there's something that catches my eye.


The studio is right next to Salt River Station. I will never get tired of drawing it.


The station has a maze of concrete ramps and bridges forming strong shapes and patterns. I've been trying to capture these. And I feel like I managed with these two.



I'm also quite pleased with them because they got me started in a new direction with my painting. (I'm still trying to decide if I'll put some of my paintings up on this blog. )

On repeat

This is what I see when I look out over our postage stamp of a back garden. Yesterday while staring out over an afternoon cup of tea my thoughts were something like, " Wow! I like the bare branches against the clear winter sky. Let me do a quick sketch."


Going through my sketch books I see that I had the same thought last year:

And a few years earlier - when the poplar trees will still knee-high:


I guess when I'm old and senile they can just sit me in front of the same window every day and I'll be happy to draw it over and over.

Sunny Sunday at Barney's Corner

It's a wonderful wintery sunny Sunday - clear blue sky, no rain, no wind. I just had to step outside to soak up some sun and draw what caught my eye.


The place on the corner of my street is Barney's Corner. When I first moved here it was a wholesale nut place. Then it was a second-hand store (got some great vintage fabric there which I've never gotten round to sewing up!). Now it's been converted into a house. The curtains are always closed - very irritating for a snoop like me.

I'll start with where I live.

This is the street where I live. I love that it is packed with everything: street lamps, telephone poles, wires, cars and houses right on top of each other.

This is what I see out my front window. My sliver of the mountian down a side alley. And more wires.