Hazelhurst Gallery

watercolour and charcoal sketch by me of Hazelhurst garden overlooking café

Hazelhurst is a regional gallery in Gymea in the Sutherland Shire in Sydney.  It's a great spot surrounded by gardens and sculptures.  Inside there are 3 galleries, a wonderful café, shop and studios for art classes.  The sketch group went to this gallery today to see the installation by Ken and Julia Yonetani.  They were commissioned by the gallery to make an installation called The Last Supper.  It comprises of a 9 metre long table of a wonderful meal made out of salt.  It addresses concerns about the increased salinity of Australian waterways and the impact this has on food production and food safety.
Hazelhurst is a wonderful place to have lunch and enjoy exhibitions that change regularly.  There was a wedding happening while were there and the kids were having lots of fun too.

 These are photos of the installation, The Last Supper by Ken and Julia Yonetani.

Glass collection

Watercolour interior with Peter Godwin painting

I have a little collection of mid century glass sitting on top of a 60's sideboard.  You can see part of it in the above watercolour.  This is the orange and red collection and I have other colours too.   My favourite is the  Scandinavian glass but I am quite fond of the textured White Friers glass from England as well.   

More Cockatoo Island

Tower

We had a great time at Cockatoo Island with the Urban Sketchers workshop teachers and artists. The weather was perfect and we all learned stuff, like having a centre of interest, to paint and draw and then draw and paint and splash all at the same time.  So much fun.  Can't wait to use some of the techniques in future work.

Cockatoo Island

Well, I have talked about Cockatoo Island before but I am back again this weekend for a workshop with Urban Sketchers. 
In the sketch above we drew what interested us most and then worked around that, making the centre of interest most detailed.  I started with the kettle shaped building and worked from there.
Making spatters is something I haven't done before and adds a bit of fun.
We are back to Cockatoo tomorrow and hopefully I will do something else to show you.
The Biennale is on right now and  Cockatoo Island is the site of fascinating art for the next few months.  If you can, please go, it is soooo good.

equipment at Cockatoo

Elizabeth Bay House

Elizabeth Bay House

Breakfast Room

  

Bedroom with steps

Dome ceiling

 Elizabeth Bay House is a wonderful example of how the wealthy lived in early white settlement in Sydney.  It was built between 1835 and 1839 for Alexander Macleay.  He was the colonial secretary of New South Wales and had a great interest in botany, studying the unique flora of the area.  He  lived with his wife and six daughters and they  studied and painted the plants and sea creatures around their home.
Alexander took up 54 acres at Elizabeth Bay and not only had the beautiful house built but also developed a garden which was celebrated for its botanical interest and use of the harbour side setting. 
Three generations of the Macleay family lived in the house until 1903.  Later it became an artist squat, a reception centre and then converted to flats.  Elizabeth bay House was restored and opened as a museum in 1977.  It is furnished to show how the Macleays lived from  1839 to 1845.

                                             

Sawmiller's Reserve



Ship wreck, McMahon's Point, Sydney

Sawmillers Reserve is along the foreshore at McMahons Point.  McMahons Point is a beautiful spot  on the north side on the harbour and on the west side of the harbour bridge.  This land held a sawmill from the 1890's, finally closing by the 1980's.  It was a thriving business especially before the 1920's and had it's own powerhouse, 2 saw mills, an engineers shop, joinery, blacksmiths shop and  it's own wharf and crane.  When the site was vacated the local council made it a public reserve.  Some of the sawmill remains and there is even a boat wreck. 
There is a sculpture exhibition on until March 16 at Sawmillers Reserve, showing more than 70 works.
This watercolour sketch was done on the weekend.  It was a beautiful spot on a beautiful warm and sunny day.  There were quite a few sailboats bobbing around in the bay and there were people swimming off one boat.  Yikes, don't they know there's sharks in there!!



Looking over the bay, ship wreck is in the far left, city ahead

 



Sydney Park

Café in Sydney Park with pottery chimneys in background, pen and watercolour by me

 
 

photo of site, café in Sydney Park

 
Sydney Park is at St Peters, bordering Newtown.  Previous to being a park it was a Brickworks and some of the chimneys and kilns remain.  When they dug up the clay big holes were produced which were then filled, over time, with rubbish.  Now that doesn't sound nice, but it has all been covered over with earth, grass and trees and it's a great place to fly a kite, give the dog a run, play cricket or take the kids to a number of play and bike areas.  It's pretty nice really.  Urban sketchers group met at Sydney Park today to draw the park or surrounds.  We went on a little walking tour of surrounding streets as it is an old area which has quite a few artist's studios. It is well known for the graffiti "art" in the lanes.   There is a number of parks in the area and will soon be completely gentrified, until then it is an interesting place to explore..

Sculpture on footpath, lane in St Peters, artist unknown

Graffiti on wall, St Peters

Gregory Crewdson

 
Gregory Crewdson is an American photographer who creates huge beautiful photographs in which each detailed part is considered and chosen by him.  The pictures are elaborately staged and lighted similar to a feature film using cranes and lighting rigs in order to get the effect he wishes.  His photographs often take place in small town America and  often feature surreal, dramatic events.
I love the narrative the art work creates.  There is a terrific documentary about him which I happened to catch yesterday, well worth watching.