Back to one of my favourite sketching subjects – the umbrella. This time in watercolour with a pen and ink background drawing.
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Down by the riverside
Time to post the remaining watercolours and drawings of our houseboat trip. Some of these works were made when we tied up for the afternoon.
In the evenings and the early mornings, the light on the cliffs was truly magic.
As the boat cruised along the river I sat out the front and tried to capture some of the passing scenery.

Cafe Wednesday – windswept
It was blowing a howling southerly on Wednesday, not quite as bad as that experienced by my family in the Hunter Valley of NSW, but bad enough. I drew these two gents who, like us had retreated into the cafe to get warm and enjoy a chat. I was trying to draw from the inside out, that is not starting with outlines but only adding them later as necessary.
Slow days on the river
Part of the birthday celebrations, just past, included four days on a house boat on the lower portion of the Murray River, part of the largest river system in the country.
There was lots to draw including a wide range of bird life. The most obvious were the pelicans (Pelecanus conspicillatus), calmly paddling along the river and getting a very good feed, it seemed, at every turn. I made a variety of sketches during our trip trying to capture some of the variety of the bird’s actions I observed.
Welcome Swallows (Hirundo neoxena) flew around the boat continuously capturing insects disturbed by our passing and cheekily roosting on the rails of the boat. We also saw lots of Australian Darters (Anhinga melanogaster) sitting, drying their wings, on convenient branches on the river margins. The darters lived up to their name with their necks twisting and swiveling to see what was happening in their vicinity.
Next post I’ll share with you some of the river scenery.
Fast times in Adelaide museums
I had two hours to spare yesterday before heading off to a major family celebration (Happy Birthday M), so a very quick visit to the South Australian art gallery was in order. I managed to fit in a quick trip around Trent Parke’s exhibition of photography , Black Rose, before grabbing a quick bite to eat.
Before I left the museum I made a quick sketch as Artemis, goddess of the hunt ran past me.
I decided to eat next door at the Museum of SA where I was able to keep company with the remains of a Humpback Whale (I have also been privileged to see these amazing animals swimming of the south east ciast of Australia).









