Paddington Reservoir

 

                 

Sketch Club went to Paddington Reservoir on Saturday. This is a wonderful public place and one that I am ashamed to say, knew nothing about.

This  was a water reservoir which took water from the Botany Swamps pumping station to supply parts of Sydney in 1866 to 1899.

The reservoir was built of brick and columns made of Australian hardwood .  The columns supported cast iron beams and these supported the roof.

In 1877 another chamber was added and this increased the storage of the facility.  It is surprising that a little over twenty years later the reservoir was emptied and no longer used for it's original purpose.  For the next hundred years the site was used for storage of cars!

The site was redeveloped and in 2008 the facility reopen as a sunken garden and is a public space.

This is a place that I'd like to return to for more sketching or just to enjoy the space.

Sirius Cove

                                                                  

Australia Day is January 26 and it is great to enjoy another  public holiday after all the Xmas festivities.  This year our public holiday was wet so there were not so many people out and about.  I spent a good part of the day at Sirius Cove, on Sydney Harbour in Mosman.  Sirius Cove has an art history as Curlew Camp was on the eastern shore of the cove.  This camp was established about 1890 and two of our most important Impressionist painters, Arthur Streeeton and Tom Roberts, lived there.  There were about 6 tents, a dining tent, a dance floor and even a piano. It was a cheap way for artists to live and work.  It is such a beautiful part of the city, perfect for artists to work en plein air.   There are a number of paintings in our public galleries painted at Sirius Cove.

A friend and I sat on the verandah of the Sea Scout hall to sketch the Harbour in  varying degrees of wet weather.  The watercolour sketch above shows the boats lining the shore and the city skyline in the background.  

The sketch below shows the view towards the beach. People were taking small boats out to their yachts.  

Finding more Service Stations

  

                 

My father sold gas or petrol at his General Store.  When I was a young child I remember swinging around a pole beside the pumps admiring the Tony the Tiger boards that were advertising Esso at the time.  Maybe that's why I am enjoying the service station project, sentimentalist that I am.

The station above is Art Deco and is situated on Parramatta Road at Summer Hill.  Parramatta Road is a historical and important road in Sydney which linked the original town and Parramatta where they could grow food for the settlement.  This station, being built in the 1930's,  would enjoy the benefits of a great deal of traffic heading west.

The second service station, fresh off the sketch pad this morning, was not built specifically for the purpose of petrol but it is a Victorian house which has been a petrol station for a long time.  The pumps are right on the sidewalk.  This one is in Norton St, Leichhardt, near the city west link.  The palm trees appear to be growing out of the verandah.

Back to the Art Gallery of NSW

                                                                                

The sketch group met at the Art Gallery of NSW on the weekend to see the Dobell drawing exhibition.  The gallery has some beautiful rooms and this is one I captured this time.  Below are a few of older sketches also from this beautiful gallery.

                            

                                       

                                        

                                     

        

     

Mechanic Apprentice

               

I enjoyed sketching this old service station because of it's colour and design.  It was open so I went in to find out more about the place.  The owner kept telling me that it was really old, hundreds of years evidently..  Personally, I think it must have been built around 1930.   He did tell me to look up a guy at Hurlstone Park that knew about the history.

I caught up with the fellow yesterday who said his father had been a mechanic apprentice at the yellow place.  In the 1950's the father had bought the service station below and the son still owns and works here.

                This is a much older building, colonial, may 1850.  It was a baby health centre before it was turned into a service station.  Now it sells petrol but mostly runs as a taxi centre.

When sketching this one a few of the taxi drivers came out.  One of them wants to commission me to paint his portrait,  only make him look more attractive than he is.  The other driver gave me a tip on the location of another old service station.  Yea!

The yellow service station is on Canterbury Road, Campsie and the White one is on New Canterbury Road, Hurlstone Park.

Making Faces

                  

 It is hot in Sydney and I'm at work through the day so the evenings have been spent inside  playing around with pencil and pen. There is always a willing model in the mirror and making faces makes things a bit more interesting.

  I have a new fountain pen called a Lami and it has been fun to play with that as you can see from the sketches below.

                                                                                        

Watercolour and Lami fountain pen.  Making a face below.

                                

                             

Collaroy

   

                                                                                    It was a hot and hazy day at Collaroy Beach yesterday.  Collaroy is 22 km North East of Sydney and part of what is called the Northern Beaches.  It was named Collaroy after a ship that went aground here in 1881.

It was nice to see family groups here with their picnic, wearing their swim suits and beer in their hands.

Across the street were shops from the early/20th century  including a very nice movie theatre.

 

It was a great day at Collaroy.  No wonder the locals love it.

More petrol stations!

                

During this holiday season I have been sketching a series of old petrol stations.  This one is in the inner west suburb of Sydney called Leichhardt.  It is not obvious from this sketch but the shape of the building is the P&O style, that rounded shape of the P&O a ships.  This was popular in the 1920's and 30's.  

A man tied his dog to a pole and went into the shop very quickly.  I managed to sketch him in near the electricity  pole before the owner hurried out and away they went.

                                                                            

This is an interesting old petrol station, no longer in use.  It is located on Cleveland St, Chippendale in Sydney. It seemed to look after luxury cars and there were signs for Jag and others.  Parked out the front were old cars, Mercedes, Volvo and I think a Rolls Royce.   I am not sure when this interesting station was built, maybe in the 1950's.  A middle aged guy came by when I sketched and said it was there when he was a boy and had a reputation as a good garage.

More petrol stations to come...

  

Back to Cockatoo Island

  

Cockatoo Island is a wonderful place to sketch due to the interesting history of the place and the marvellous views looking out.  It is located in Sydney harbour and to get there you use  the ferry or a water taxi. 

Urban Sketchers visited Cockatoo Is. the day before New Year's Eve.  Since the island gives a fantastic vantage point to the New Years fireworks,  people were arriving in great numbers and setting up their own tents.  The island also has its own glamour camping with beautiful tents already set up and ready to go.  There are cafes and a bar or two which would have been busy because people weren't allowed to bring alcohol with them.

I did the above sketch at the back of the island and you can see some of the industrial buildings as well as the rocky cliff.  Below is a quick sketch of a power/electrical box.  Lots to sketch at Cockatoo so I look forward to another visit.