Boronia House

   

                 

Sketch club went to Boronia House in Mosman this morning.  This beautiful home was built in 1885 and was one of two identical houses called Boronia and Telopea.  They were built for two brothers who had a coach building business.  

This home was lived in by a family until 1951 when it was sold to the council and used as a library.  It was been refurbished since then and is now  tea rooms and a wedding venue.

It is very popular and had no tables left for us to have a cuppa.  Must book next time.

Coffee shop portraits

     

                                                                             

I did something I have never done before on Saturday.  I went to a local coffee shop by myself for the purpose of sketching others.  It was a cloudy morning and I sat outside under cover.  The guy above was an excellent model as sat reading the paper for quite some time.

The guys below and above shared the same table.

                        

                         

   This lady was sitting at the table next to me but was immersed in conversation with her friend and didn't notice me working away.  Her friend did notice though and wanted me to sketch her as well.

  So I did.  It started raining during this sketch and the ladies were getting wet.  They didn't move though.  I emailed these sketches to them.

Back to Newtown garage

                       

This is another sketch of the Newtown service station on King St and Whitehorse St. This was the first station of the series done in December.  I wasn't quite happy with it and wanted another go.  This time I sketched it from the front, sitting on a bus stop bench.

I am concerned this rare Spanish Mission style service station will be lost to redevelopment.   There is a window missing and other damage which is causing the rain to get in as well as birds.   Graffiti is also present which I have not put in my sketch.   Poor old station, she needs a benefactor.

Below is the first sketch sketched from the corner.

                            

   

    

Lanterns of the Terracotta Warriors

   

                                                                                     

To celebrate Sydney's Chinese New Year is this installation of Chinese warriors.  These were created by the artist Xia Nan for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.  They were previously only seen in China and the United Kingdom.

The warriors are made from fabric and wire and are men, women and children.  These bigger than life size warriors sit next to Sydney harbour with the Opera House and the Harbour bridge as a back drop.

Sketch club came to see this great installation tonight, the first day of Chinese New Year.  They are here until Feb 22.

                                

                               

    

                  

                                   

                             

  

Sketching Sketchers at Annandale

  

                                                          

  

I have been working on a little on-line course by Canadian, Marc Taro Holmes called Sketching People in Motion.  This is inspiring me to sketch people. Yesterday, in a bookshop I did some pretty poor sketches of people but they were moving so quickly, it was very difficult.

Sketch club went to Annandale today and after doing a sketch of a building I turned around to sketch some of my fellow sketchers. They didn't move as much as the book browsers so it was a bit easier.

                               

Below is a sketch of a Victorian building on the corner of Johnson st and Parramatta road, Annandale.

The Incinerator

                 

The Incinerator was completed in 1934 and was designed by Walter Burley Griffin and Eric Nicholls.  We, in Australia, are very familiar with Walter Burley Griffin as he was the architect of Canberra, our national capital.  

Griffin was interested in making industrial buildings beautiful as well as practical and this site proves this idea.

It's use as an incinerator stopped in 1967 and it lay unused until the 1980's when it became a restaurant.  In more recent years it has been restored and is now a popular cafe as well as having a gallery and artist studio.

The building is on a side of a hill and the cafe is up at the top, at the ground level.  The sketch above was drawn in the valley and the sketch below is at the street level.  

This is the entrance to the cafe.  The sculptural building to the left is the elevator to the lower levels.

Urban Sketchers met at the Incinerator today and everyone enjoyed the challenges of the building, enjoyed each other's company and, of course, a delicious lunch.