It’s New Year so of course I got asked about my new year resolutions, umm, aaah. The best I can come up with is to make fewer cafe drawings (they’ll never stop completely) and spend more time getting out to specifically draw some of the sights around Canberra. I’ll also try and steer clear of the obvious tourist shots and give you some new perspectives on our country’s capital.

So off we go to Parliament House, where we enjoyed a small, but interesting exhibition Namatjira to Now — Five Generations of Watercolours from the Central Desert, its on until 15 February so if you are nearby it’s worth taking a look at. Apart from all the individual artists there is a most amazing collage of watercolour paintings, which, as Lenie Namatjira said

“We started off with magazines, then watercolours. We picked quick ones, not good ones. Then we cut them, then stuck them on one long piece of paper, so they would be big country, all western country – west of Alice Springs – the country of my grandfather Albert Namatjira.”

Knara, Nunaka Tywerewtye, Our Big Country: The West MacDonald Ranges
The Big Picture, Collaboration with Collage,  Gloria Pannka, Kevin Wirri, Rienhold Inkamala, Lenie Namatjira, Ivy Pareroulta’ Selma Coulthard Nunay with Rolande Souliere

The exhibition is located near the Members Hall, (if you check out the link above there is a picture of this space from the ground floor level, 3rd small image down). This Hall is the central space in the Parliament building and goes from ground level through all floors of the building to a skylight sited directly under the flagpole. The walls are lined with Australian timbers and the vertical white columns surround the central open space.

The Members Hall, Parliament House, Copic multiliner and watercolour (added later), 2 January 2014

I’m off to a good start so I’ll keep sharing with you where my drawing takes me.