Last Sketch for 2021

As the last sketch for 2021, I thought I'd record my life in the past week. 

Starting first with the plastic container of excellent homemade cookies, brought all the way from Singapore by old school friends who had come to spend Christmas with family who live in Melbourne. It was brave of them to travel in this time of Covid but they made it (bar having to home quarantine after someone on their flight tested positive). This type of plastic container filled with cookies are a usual feature during Chinese New Year. It was really nice to have these friends pop in for lunch with their family, cookies in hand!

I have been under the weather since Boxing Day with a sinus complaint. Our friendly pharmacist dosed me up with stronger decongestants so that box of pills had to be sketched too. 

As there was so much red/orange on the page, it seemed a good idea to go the whole hog and make the page ALL red objects! Adding the lovely red Poinsettia given to me by a friend filled the page nicely!

Red is an auspicious colour so here's to 2022!

Ending the year on a poem I like –

"For last year's words belong to last year's language

And next year's words await another voice

And to make an end is to make a beginning". 

– T.S. Elliott

#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #Moleskine Sketchbook, 3.5" x 5.5” 

Christmas Lunch 2021

With Covid numbers in our state of Victoria at an all time high and the Omicron strain making an appearance, it was anybody's guess what Christmas 2021 was going to be like. Rightly or wrongly, our state government did not back down on its promise that Christmas would be "normal" ie. there would be no restriction on the number of home visitors.

What a treat it was then to be able to share this happy spread with family on Christmas day! 

This was sketched on location, colours added at home.

#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #Moleskine Sketchbook, 3.5" x 5.5” 

Singapore Shophouse (49)

A Singapore shophouse with a fascinating frontage! It's Utopia Apparel in Haji Lane (in the Muslim quarter of Singapore) and has batik patterns on it's upper facade.  

I'm not using my usual tools of ink and watercolour (or my usual sketchbook) but using mixed media was appropriate for this subject. 

I'm fascinated by the Singapore Shophouse, a prevalent style of architecture in Singapore (and other SE Asian cities) between the 1840s and the 1960s. They are narrow terrace houses 2 to 3 storeys high and typically housed a commercial shop on the ground floor and living quarters upstairs. 

The ground floor sits back from the road, while an overhanging veranda is supported by columns, creating the distinctive public five-footway which is a tiled or concreted pathway running the length of the row of shophouses. This feature was introduced in 1822 by Sir Stamford Raffles (founder of Singapore), as part of his town plan for early Singapore. 

Here is a photo of Utopia Apparels. It really is as in my sketch!

With their unique interiors, these buildings hold great nostalgia for me as my maternal grandfather's tailor shop on High Street, my paternal grandparents' home near the Peranakan suburb of Joo Chiat and my great-grandmother's home on Cantonment Road were all built in this architectural style. 

The overhanging verandah over the five-foot-way at my great-grandmother's house had a trap door on the floor. Through this we could check on who was knocking on the front door. Also a basket could be lowered down to purchase a snack from a food vendor. Children enjoyed dropping things down on unsuspecting passers-by.

Shophouses form the bulk of the Singapore Governments' gazetted conservation buildings and to this day with their colourful facades and eclectic mix of cultural influences (Chinese, Malay, French, Portuguese, English) are widely used for residential and commercial purposes.

You can read a nice account of the Singapore Shophouse here: https://www.roots.gov.sg/.../singapore-shophouses/story

Thank you to FB group #shopfrontchallenge #eurekawanders for the image (No.49).

Pen and ink, watercolour pencil, Caran D'ache Neocolor II water-soluble wax pastel.

Timbarra Park

Timbarra Park has metal sculptures of a cow and a scarecrow in a farmyard themed park. Not a very inspiring park for sketching but pleasant enough on what was a surprisingly cold summer day. This was a Christmas meet and the last for the year with Casey Sketcher friends (most are present or past members of my sketch class for Casey U3A).

The main subjects were done on-location but the heading, text block and spot illustrations were added at home to complete the 2 page spread.

My page layout was inspired by what I learnt in the course Sketchbook Design offered by Sydney sketcher Liz Steel. While the final result always looks better with the added elements, my rendition of these extras can look stiff and I lose the freshness of work done on-location. This is a problem I will have to work on.

#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #Stillman&Birn Beta Sketchbook, 7.5”x 7.5”

Proteas and other Natives

A neighbour gave me these flowers from her Gippsland property. Personally gathered flowers make the best bouquets! Thank you!!

I'm not into delicate feminine floral art. These Australian natives however lend themselves to the bold mixed media work which I prefer.

#Sailorfude pen and ink, watercolour, Caran d'ache Neocolor II Water-soluble wax pastels #Stillman&Birn Beta Sketchbook, 7.5”x 7.5”

 

Backyard Bee Census

The Backyard Bee Census, was organized for the first time this year by CERES from 14th till 21st November. CERES describes itself as an environmental education centre, community garden, urban farm and social enterprise hub. It is spread across four locations in Melbourne, Australia. Results from the count were shared with their partner Wild Pollinator Count and resulted in the largest count ever for this long term national project which tracks what insects are pollinating what plants, where and when. 

The Backyard Bee Census is the flagship citizen science event organized by Wild Pollinators Oceania. Results from this year's count will take some time to be released. See end of this post for links to these organizations. 

After so many rainy days I finally got to take part in the Bee Census on 17 November. I never knew so many types of insects visited our flowers! 

Each chosen single (or group) of flowers is watched for 10 minutes and insects which land are counted and identified where possible. 

The Yarrow attracted 2 beetles and 3 tiny (flies?), only 2 European Bees. 7 European Bees landed on the 30x30cms area of Lavender I chose to watch. Their pollen sacs were bursting! 

Only one European Bee and 2 unknown fast flying insects on the Salvia 'Waverley'. 

I didn't get to finish my sketchbook page about the count until 29th November. The garden plants where I did my count were drawn and painted on location, the insects were drawn from my own photos.

Since doing the census I now enjoy a new appreciation of the insects visiting my garden. 

#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #Stillman&Birn Beta Sketchbook, 7.5”x 7.5”

#wildpollinatorcount #wildpollinatoroceania #CERES

Bryn Mawr Park

It's only a very small park without a name (bordered by Bryn Mawr Blvd and Paddington Terrace, Berwick). I wasn't expecting there to be much to sketch from what I could see on Google Maps but the little bridge and the bed (for overflow water I'm told) plus the surrounding trees made it a pleasant scene. On this day the bed was dry.

The pleasant surroundings and the perfect weather made it a very nice afternoon for a sketchmeet with some Casey Sketcher friends (most had attended my Casey U3A sketch classes).

This was our first sketchmeet after the most recent 3 month lockdown. It was nice to see everyone again and with our Covid numbers still somewhat high, meeting in a park instead of in crowded streets or cafes seemed to make good sense. 

#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #MoleskineWatercolourAlbum, 5x8”