January 4, 2015January 6, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

Resolution

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, watercolour, Gloria Pannka, Kevin Wirri, Rienhold Inkamala, Lenie Namatjira, Ivy Pareroulta' Selma Coulthard Nunay with Rolande Souliere

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.

January 1, 2015 by Leonie Andrews

New Year’s Day Breakfast

Happy New Year! We have a long established tradition of breaking bread with our friends and family for our first meal of the new year. Today was no exception. We gathered at our favourite barbeque spot at Lake Tuggeranong and proceeded to eat bacon and eggs, home-made bread and baked beans, some bubbles coffee tea and fruit.

Part of our festive New Year’s breakfast, pen and ink and watercolour, 1 January 2015

The weather was perfect and everyone had a great time.

Family and friends at Lake Tuggeranong, 1 January 2015, pen and ink and watercolour

December 31, 2014December 31, 2014 by Leonie Andrews

At the Australian War Memorial

The Australian War Memorial is the most visited tourist destination in Canberra but it has been some time since I last went there. While we were actually taking a visitor to see the Memorial I realised that it would also be a great place to do some sketching. Following the advice to practice drawing people where they are likely to be doing similar things so you can build up a composite picture, I found a bench in the WWI gallery and started drawing.

The Poziere diorama
Sculpture: Frank Lynch
Painting: Louis McCubbin, Murray Griffin

I actually had my back to the Poziere diorama when I realised that the shiny partition in front of me reflected the people looking at the diorama, so I could draw them without having to look directly at anyone.

People looking at the Poziere diorama, Australian War Memorial, Copic Multiliner, graphite and watercolour, 31 December 2014

Things were going swimmingly until a guide brought his tour group between me and the partition. Then someone noticed my drawing and started apologising for being in my way, then the next person also apologised – I knew it was time to move on.

After a break we moved down into ANZAC Hall where I found plenty of space to sit and draw next to the remains of the Japanese Midget submarines that attacked ships in Sydney Harbour in 1942. The low angle allowed me to draw the somewhat dramatic view past a gun from the SMS Emden, (the target of an attack by HMAS Sydney in November 1914), up to the next level and the Landing Place Cafe.

Gun from the SMS Emden and the Landing Place cafe, Australian War Memorial, 31 December 2014, pen and ink, graphite and watercolour.

We glanced out one of the windows and noticed a ship’s bridge and gun sitting in the courtyard (as you do). So we had to check it out before we left. It turned out to be what remains of the HMAS Brisbane, which was in service from 1966 up until the 1990’s. Not surprisingly this is the largest naval relic in the Memorial’s collection.

The bridge and gun 52 of the HMAS Brisbane, Australian War Memorial 31 December 2014, pen and ink. Also an unrelated sketch of several visitors looking down into ANZAC Hall pen and ink and graphite

Our visit today reminded me of what a wealth of interesting subjects could be found at the War Memorial. I’m planning on re-visiting it during the coming year.

December 27, 2014 by Leonie Andrews

Cafe Wednesday – Christmas Eve

Obscured landscape, partial view from the National Arboretum cafe, Copic Multiliner, 24 December 2014

The shopping was done, the presents were wrapped so what better way to spend our time than to do some sketching. Our local cafe had closed for the holidays and it was overcast and raining so we took ourselves to the cafe at the National Arboretum Canberra for some of the best views of the city and surrounds.

December 20, 2014 by Leonie Andrews

It’s complicated …

Our second, all singing and dancing family sketching event took place at the footbridge near a local high school. We thought that the dramatic central pylon which suspends the footbridge above the road and the sweeping curve of the bike ramp would make an excellent subject to draw. It does, but it turned out to be rather more difficult than we anticipated.

I started off with a blind drawing, just to get some idea of which section I might draw. I initially picked an area that was fairly complex and included the main ramp, and the stairs off the bridge. By the way, the main structure of the bridge is painted a bright orange colour, (which has upset some of the nearby residents).

Initial blind drawing, pen and ink as well as using watercolour to indicate some of the different elements of the bridge, 19 December 2014

I thought this section was perhaps a bit ambitious for a first attempt, so I switched my attention to the curving bike ramp instead. I was reasonably happy with this until I realised that I was struggling to getting the double hand rail and its’ support structure in the correct position. I added the watercolour as I wanted to keep in mind the silhouette of the ramp against the skyline.

The first go at the bike ramp, Copic Multiliner and watercolour, 19 December 2014

At this stage there was some muttering in the ranks about sketches not quite going to plan and needing to shift position so we were out of the sun. As the happy sketching ambience started to disappear along with the shade I decided to cut my losses and try and work out just how those little support bars hold the hand rails up.

Those little tubes holding the hand rails in place, Copic multiliner,19 December 2014

By the time I’d managed this small detail there was a big push to return home to a nice cool drink. Ah, happy families!

(In my defence, I will state here that no-one was forced to go sketching against their will, it just seemed like a good idea at the time!)

leonieandrews

Tag / location sketch