The longer the wait, the more details get added to my sketch! Here I was feeling like a walking tent in the (one size fits all) hospital dressing gown when a lady walked in wearing her own fluffy pink dressing gown with matching slippers! Unfortunately she sat next to me so I couldn't sketch her.
This place has got too familiar in the past two years but from the good results this time, I will have seen the back of it for awhile.
Marker pens, Handbook Journal 5.5" x 5.5".
Perched on high ground above a waterlily lake this is the Rotunda at Wilson Botanic Park, Berwick. A popular spot for weddings and I'm told there's sometimes an evening concert held there.
After 5 months of health issues it was great to be out with a few sketcher friends, what a lovely hot day for a change!
#Sailorfude pen, watercolour. #Stillman&Birn Beta Sketchbook, 7.5”x 7.5”
This Pitcher Plant didn't do well over winter so we cut the brown tipped leaves back but it has produced a wonderful flower! I've including a couple of our indoor succulents on this page spread for aesthetic reasons. One has produced a rather uninspiring spire of flowers but the other continues to delight in it's very miniature teacup pot. The pot is literally one inch in diameter and we have had it for some years!
#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #Stillman&Birn Beta Sketchbook, 8.5 x 5.5”.
Now that it's Spring I'm working again in my new (second) Garden Journal! The Crepe Myrtle is indeed more bushy after the extra heavy prune earlier in the year. The Nasturtiums are again doing too well (too many leaves, not enough flowers). What should I do about that?
These days, what I sketch and the tools I use are determined by our present life circumstances. Opportunities for long dedicated sketch sessions have become few and far between so I sketch wherever I am, whatever I can see in the limited time allotted.
Acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine, Physiotherapy, Audiology... Here's two of a cluster of paramedical establishments housed in what were once private homes. Oh and it was blue bin collection day today (for recycling collection).
This sketch was done from the car while waiting for my spouse who was at a physiotherapist appointment. I'm loving the random pre-coloured sketchbook page technique! Just the shot for adding interest to a sketch when time is short.
Here are two more sketches from the car while waiting for my spouse again. Looking across at an ENT clinic housed in a renovated old private home. When last I sketched this scene 2 weeks ago the tree was completely bare (see above sketch). It's now covered in white blooms!
This next sketch is looking into Buchanan Park from the car park of the adjoining medical clinic.
#Sailorfude pen,#MoleskineWatercolourNotebook, 8.25”x 5", Handbook Journal 5.5" x 5.5".
Due to our various medical issues this year it's been three and a half months since we went out anywhere (other than to see medical professionals). This was a farewell lunch for a friend.
How come it’s taken us so long to find this restaurant! We have mixed reactions about the food and surrounds but it's worth a second visit. It's been a long time since I've done a food sketch. The line work is too heavy – my brown ink pen ran out of ink on site and for some reason my grey ink pen seemed to flow too well on this rather hot day. Sketched on location but colours added at home.
#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #SeawhiteTravelJournal 5.5x5.5".
Our kitchen sink is blocked! Draino doesn’t work. The plumber took awhile to decide on the best approach and ended up water blasting!
(Sketchbook pages pre-prepared with random colour swatches).
#Sailorfude pen, Handbook Journal 5.5" x 5.5".
A quick sketch from the car as we’re half an hour early for an appointment. Looking at Peking Land and a Biryani restaurant at Stud Road Shopping Center but we picked up a KFC on the way home. Thanks Ash for driving.
(Sketchbook pages pre-prepared with random colour swatches).
#Sailorfude pen, Handbook Journal 5.5" x 5.5".
3.30pm and the kids from Nossal High are walking through Buchanan Park after school. I was sketching from the adjoining car park of Berwick Healthcare while my spouse sets up a plan with the physio for after his hip replacement.
Buchanan Park from the same spot again the next day while my spouse had another appointment. It was a cold morning and the young mother hastily put one child's coat on...before she got the baby out from the car.
Another sketch for my Significant Spaces and Places series which I will combine with old photos and personal stories about my Peranakan Chinese ancestors.
Still on Google Maps, following another river. This time the Melaka River in Malaysia and the Tan Kim Seng Bridge with which I have a family connection. The man being my great great great grandfather, born in Melaka in 1805.
The bridge crosses the Melaka River near the historical Dutch-era buildings. The Stadhuys (old Dutch spelling, meaning city hall) was built in 1650 and is thought to be the oldest remaining Dutch historical building in Asia. It housed the offices of the Dutch Governor. Nearby is the Clock Tower and the 18th century Dutch-built Christ Church.
What a checkered colonial history Melaka had – the Portuguese took the town in 1511, the Dutch conquered them in 1641 and the British took over in the late 18th century (apparently to prevent it from falling into the hands of the French!). Originally painted white, Christ Church and the neighbouring Stadhuys and Clock Tower were painted red in 1911. They are Melaka's iconic landmarks.
#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #MoleskineWatercolourNotebook, 8.25”x 5"(portrait).
Another sketch for my Significant Spaces and Places series which I will combine with old photos and personal stories about my Peranakan Chinese ancestors.
Still following Google maps along the Singapore River, this time to sketch Elgin Bridge.
Here's my on-location sketch from near the same spot in 2013.
The two earliest bridges built at this site were wooden footbridges, followed in 1862 by an iron bridge. This was named Elgin Bridge after James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, a colonial administrator and diplomat who had served as Governor of Jamaica, Governor-General of Canada and Viceroy of India. The current concrete bridge was built in 1929.
An Italian sculptor Cavaliere Rudolfo Nolli, designed the cast iron lamps on both sides of the bridge.
Interestingly the two roads leading to Elgin Bridge are named North Bridge Road and South Bridge Road. Stamford Raffles, Founder of Singapore issued an instruction in 1819 that a bridge be built as soon as possible across the Singapore River so that it may link a town planned for the Chinese community on the southern side of the river to another intended for the Malays on the northern side!
I'm pleased to learn that Elgin Bridge (together with Anderson Bridge and Cavanagh Bridge and collectively known as The Singapore River Bridges) are gazetted a National Monument of Singapore.
To read my post of my earlier 2013 sketch and trip to the Singapore River see:
http://nowismystoryinsketches.blogspot.com/2013/11/elgin-bridge-and-beyond_12.html
#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #MoleskineWatercolourNotebook, 8.25”x 5"(portrait.
Taking a walk along the Singapore River mouth with Google Maps, here's the imposing Fullerton Hotel. I remember going into the building only once as a child when it was the old General Post Office – cavernous, dark and musty, with lots of brown desks. In more recent times we had walked through the hotel and once enjoyed an expensive late night snack there in the company of a famous poet.
I'm thrilled to say our poet friend is this year's winner of the 2023 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry.
#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #MoleskineWatercolourNotebook 8.25”x 5"(portrait).
A man in the waiting room said “don’t you find as you get older you spend a lot more time waiting?” I agree! He was envious I had a sketching hobby to pass the time.
Here I am sketching in Beaconsfield Eye Care while waiting for my spouse to get fitted with dedicated reading glasses. Good thing I had gone with him as he had to have dilating eyedrops put into his eyes during the eye examination and wouldn't have been able to drive home.
Marker pens, #Handbook Journal 5.5" x 5.5".
This is the first page of a new Garden Journal!
The Crepe Myrtle on the right was featured twice in my previous Garden Journal (in Spring 2021 and Spring 2022). It flowered poorly in 2021 and not at all in 2022. Here it is again, this time in winter (I love drawing my garden through the windows on cold wet days).
Crepe Myrtles flower on new growth so we gave it an extra hard prune this year. It looks unattractively stick-like at the moment but I'm hoping it will will give us a good showing this summer.
#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #Stillman&Birn Beta Sketchbook, 8.5 x 5.5”.
I've just added the finishing touches to an experiment – painting into wet paper and to see how I would tackle a scene with lots of details while working in a sketchy style. Phew, I don't think I'll try it again!
As you've probably guessed, I'm intrigued with the Singapore Shopfront architectural style. To read more on this style of architecture and my personal connection with it, see my previous blog posts:
1) Utopia Apparel in Haji Lane
2) Four more Shopfront Challenges
Thanks Alice Lim (#eureca1 #eurekawanders #singaporeshopfrontchallenge) for the photo (Heng Moh Seng No.123) and the weekly challenge to draw these iconic buildings.
#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #Stillman&Birn Zeta Sketchbook, 7.5”x 7.5”
#singaporeshopfront
An unexpected opportunity to sketch before breakfast!
I woke to find our neighbour’s moving van had arrived! They had lovingly renovated their home but the demands of a growing family necessitated a move. We will miss them. We hear the house will be torn down by new owners and a (luckily) single storey new build will go up.
I wonder when the noise and dust will begin!
#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #MoleskineWatercolourNotebook, 8.25”x 5"(portrait).
Medical waiting room after our 5th Covid vaccination. Will this be the last?
I added this sketch of our African Violets in memory of a very old friend, Iris, who sadly passed away recently. Her favourite colour was mauve/violet. We met when she, S, J and I were living in the same dorms at university. We went our separate ways after graduating – different countries, different cities, connected only by a yearly Xmas letter over 50 plus years. We had a happy reunion with Iris and S in 2019.
The older sketches at left of the page-spread are of vegetables (silverbeet and parsley) and left over morning tea which I came home with after attending a talk for Casey U3A's Garden Club group.
#Sailorfude pen, watercolour,#Stillman&Birn Zeta Sketchbook, 7.5”x 7.5”. #Caseyu3a
Autumn views from our kitchen window. Finished this main one recently (I couldn't stop adding dots and dashes).
These other two were done almost exactly a year ago! The older ones were done with gay abandon and compromised eyesight after my first cataract operation last year. I think I like the old ones better! I couldn't see properly at the time and didn't care about the final product which resulted in freer more expressive drawings!
#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #MoleskineWatercolourAlbum, 5x8”.
Here's a couple of photos from the launch night of the recent exhibition Community Capsule in Fed Square, Melbourne where 9 pages from my Covid Journal (now in the State Library) were displayed. The 2 photographers featured with me in the panel discussion were Julie Ewing and Bri Hammond.
To read about Julie and Bri's Covid Projects:
Julie Ewing:
https://museumsvictoria.com.au/one-year-on/across-the-fence/
Bri Hammond:
https://www.brihammond.com/isolation-portraits
and mine (just showing my favourite pages from the 80 page sketch journal):
“Wait in your car until your GP calls you”. We forget we’re still under the cloud of Covid (and now flu). Sketching Buchanan Park from the parking lot of our health provider on 2 separate occasions.
What a beautiful white gum behind the fence! There seems no vehicle entry to Buchanan Park and people are parking illegally in the medical clinic’s parking lot!
Marker pens, Handbook Journal 5.5" x 5.5".
Sketching from live TV coverage on my comfortable couch at home was better than being there! Thank you BBC!
I should have sketched scenes in the abbey when people were mostly stationary but I was too afraid to miss anything.
A page in history.
#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, #Stillman&Birn Zeta Sketchbook, 7.5”x 7.5”
I love sketching action so the parade and ceremony at the War Memorial in Berwick, Victoria for Anzac Day was too good an opportunity to miss. It was just a small ceremony in this outer suburb of Melbourne but nonetheless meaningful. Quite well attended and the cafes did well after.
Note the soldier in the photo below marching in a WWI uniform.
#Sailorfude pen, watercolour, SeawhiteTravelJournal 5.5" x 5.5".
