Author / Leonie Andrews

Unknown's avatar

Posts by Leonie Andrews

I am an artist of the landscape of common objects. Discarded items and suburban life fuel my art practice.
by Leonie Andrews

A teapot

Under the 'waterfall' at the South Building, New Acton

Under the ‘waterfall’ at the South Building, New Acton

On Friday we ate lunch at Mocan & Green Grout, located under this cascade of oxidised steel plate.

Customers sit on thin leather cushions on blocks of wood, or on string stools. The place is bustling with staff, cooking and conversation. While waiting for our meal we had something to drink.

My tea came in a dramatically shaped iron tea pot.

Blind drawing of the teapot

Blind drawing of the teapot

I struggled to draw the pot’s unusual shape. The flattened base, the solid handle and the elegant spout. A gradation of raised spots flared across the cast iron surface. I made more sense of the spots when I drew them on the corner of the page.

by Leonie Andrews

‘Drawn In’ 26 May

I finally made it back to one of the National Portrait Gallery’s drawing days. This time rather than have a set piece to draw from there was a musician, Rose Maher, playing songs for Reconciliation Week.

My first drawing was of Rose and her father (whose name I didn’t catch), backing her up on guitar.

Rose Maher and her father at the National Portrait Gallery

Rose Maher and her father at the National Portrait Gallery

Next I tried  the jug and glasses on a small stool, with dramatic shadows provided by the bright sunlight streaming in the window. The watercolour was added later.

Pencil sketch with watercolour

Pencil sketch with watercolour

My final drawing was of some of the other people participating in the event. The watercolour was added later.

'Drawn In' 26 may 2013 at the National Portrait Gallery

‘Drawn In’ 26 May 2013 at the National Portrait Gallery

The next sessions , if you are in Canberra, will be held on Sunday 9 June and Sunday 7 July from 1pm to 3pm. On Sunday 26 June there will be a special life drawing class with Braidwood artist John R Walker (fees apply).

by Leonie Andrews

Coming back down to earth

image

Another speaker at the Designing a Capital forum last week was the artist Geoff Farquar-Still, whose sculpture of a paper aeroplane has come to rest not far from the coffee shop we frequent.

Geoff commented that, when this work was first placed near the High Court building, children played on it, assuming it was a piece of playground equipment. I’m not sure why the piece was moved (I do recall a sculpture competition being temporarily sited in that area), but I’m  sure that in its current location, adjacent to a children’s playground, it’s still getting similar attention. Interestingly, the surveyor working nearby had to be convinced that it was a sculpture and not just another piece of playground equipment.