March 3, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Night Noodle Markets

We braved the Night Noodle Markets last night, the main food event held as part of Canberra’s Enlighten Festival. Having arrived early and fortified ourselves with ‘meat on sticks’ we found a good spot next to the lantern display for drawing. The only drawback was the wind blowing off Lake Burley-Griffin, which was so strong that it blew my watercolour box off the table several times! It took me over an hour but I persisted with trying to capture those lanterns dancing on their wires. It was light when I started and dark by the time I’d finished. A great time was had by all.

The lantern display at the Night Noodle Markets, 2 March 2015, watercolour

February 9, 2015January 21, 2025 by Leonie Andrews

This could be the start of something big *

You just never know how things will start. You see several sketchers ‘found’ each other through the Urban Sketchers Australia group and we decided we’d see if there was enough interest to get a Canberra group off the ground. When the call went out just over a week ago for sketchers to meet at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) this Sunday morning we weren’t sure just how many people would turn up. We were really pleased that there were 9 people who answered the call. The NGA offers all sorts of drawing opportunities so after brief introductions everyone went off to find their particular place to draw.

Some of the group comparing their sketches, 8 February 2015

Several of us went to the Fern Garden, one of the rather hard to find gems of the Gallery, as access is only via the back end of the building sort of stuck behind a carpark and service areas. I love the shape of the tree ferns so that was where I started.

The Fern Garden, designed by Fiona Hall, pen and ink, pencil and watercolour pencil, 8 February 2015

Other people had quite a different view of exactly the same area. Forget the ferns, this sketch by one of the other participants, was focused solely on Hall’s underlying structure of pathways for the garden.

The pathways in the Fern Garden, Copic Multiliner, 8 February 2015

Later I moved around into the Sculpture Garden, which was proving to be a popular place to be. I completed a second drawing, this time of Bert Flugelman’s iconic Cones. It was also a popular choice to draw, you can see Sharon B’s version here.

Cones by Bert Flugelman, pen and ink, Copic Multiliner, liquid graphite, 8 February 2015

The two hours we allocated to drawing went by so quickly. We reconvened at the cafe to share our morning’s work. There were sculptures, architecture, gardens and chairs. Lots of watercolours, ink, pen and pencil as well.

Canberra sketchers, our first get together, 8 February 2015

An another shot of our collected works.

Another view of the finished sketches, 8 February 2015

It was so much fun that we are doing it again next month. If you’re interested in coming along just meet us on Sunday 1 March, at the coffee shop outside the entrance to the National Gallery of Australia at 10.30 am.

PS we will be exploring other areas of Canberra, but the group decided that there was still plenty of material to be explored at the NGA so we’ll have another session there before moving to other venues.

PPS if you can’t wait until then you might like to go along to the National Portrait Gallery’s monthly ‘Drawn In’ event, on Sunday 22 February from 1-3 pm, where you can draw with the accompaniment of the Night Cafe Jazz Trio.

*I hope you enjoy this ‘vintage’ clip of Steve Allen, (the composer of this song and TV host), with his guests, including a surprising cameo towards the end of the clip. This Could be the Start of Something Big

February 3, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Seeking Sketchers in Canberra

If you are interested in getting your sketchbook out and doing some drawing, the join a group of like-minded people, this Sunday, 8 February, at 10.30 am outside the National Gallery in Canberra. Hope to see you there!

January 17, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Trip, stumble and fall

“If you can’t be a good example, you’ll have to be a horrible warning”

So says crime writer Catherine Aird and last week’s sketch outing was a fine vindication of this thought. It started out well enough, we went to the newly completed Beijing Garden, a gift from Canberra’s sister city, in honour of Canberra’s centenary. The garden is located on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin, behind the Hyatt Hotel. The garden packs in quite a bit of cultural and gardening history in a relatively small area. There are buildings, numerous sculptures and rocks, so there’s lots to draw.

I was intrigued by a view which I could see from the road, where the tea house is partly obscured by the sloping ground. I found a similar position closer to the tea house and started to put in my pencil guides. The fact that I took a while and several attempts to get this much should have indicated that I needed to re-consider what I included in the composition. But who am I to listen to common sense.

I ploughed on into the watercolours and started to make some headway into what I soon realised was a deceptively complex set of columns. By this stage my inner me was frantically signalling that I should perhaps quit while I was ahead, after all I’d done an OK job of getting those columns more or less in place. Why not consolidate what I’d already captured or move on to a new composition all together?

Where I probably should have stopped!, watercolour, 13 January 2015

Maybe next time I’ll listen to myself. But I couldn’t leave it alone and started in on the roof instead. Oh no, it soon dawned on me that I had all sorts of problems here, not the least of which was getting the angles and placement right. There was also the issue of colour. The very strong gold and emerald colours of the glazed tiles actually do sit very strangely with the exceptionally light grey colour of the stone columns. This is something I could have artistically bodged up, but by this stage I just couldn’t manage it.

Oh dear, if at first you don’t succeed! watercolour 13 January 2015.

At least the others had the sense to draw something else and were way more successful in their outcomes. The Beijing Garden is now definitely on the re-visit list and hopefully I will have learned something from this experience. If nothing else I did get a laugh from this sign.

Sign at the Beijing Garden

Next time I can manage some consolidation of my own.

January 6, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

St John’s Church, Reid

St John’s Church (or more correctly the Anglican Church of St John the Baptist), was consecrated in 1845, making it the oldest building the in area of Canberra city, (the city didn’t really take off until the decision was taken to make it the site of the national capital in 1908). The church and the associated school house are listed on the Register of the National Estate.

The view of my painting is of the northern side of the church (built between 1841-45) towards the spire (which was demolished and then rebuilt between 1865-70). The sandstone for the main part of the church was quarried from Black Mountain and also near the current suburb of Yarralumla. The side chapel, is built in the local ‘bluestone’ (or Dacitic ignimbrite to be geologically accurate), from nearby Mt Pleasant.

St John’s Church, Canberra, from the northern side looking towards the tower on the western end of the building, watercolour, 5 January 2015

The strong summer sun cast some dramatic highlights on the golden sandstone of the church. I really enjoyed ‘allowing’ myself to take the time to make a watercolour study, rather than the relatively quick sketches I’ve been making recently. I must do it more often.

leonieandrews

Tag / Canberra landmarks