Woolwich Dry Dock

   

                             

On this rainy  Saturday my sketch friends and I met at 830 AM!  Slightly early!  This dry dock is an interesting place with a variety of watercraft tied up including some very, very fancy ones.  I liked this one, not fancy but it has character.  The photo below shows the view of the dry dock from the top.

                       

The rain was coming down enough to cause us to seek shelter in a restaurant next to the dock. This is the view from the verandah where we sat having a coffee, a chat and sketch.  Great day!

          

    

Surry Hills

                                  

Sydney Sketch club went to Surry Hills on Sunday.  This old suburb was originally a working class area with factories, warehouses and terraces.  Luckily many of these buildings are still there.  The scene above attracted me because of the sweep of road and deco hotel. I'm not sure why it was called Hotel Hollywood but the signage is certainly period style so it is probably  the original name.

                                  

This is my sketch friend.  We only had a half an hour so I chose to sketch her rather than the scene in front of us.

Leichhardt Town Hall

                               

Leichhardt Town Hall is a confection of Victoriana and was fun to sketch today.  My fine fountain pen was out of order  and maybe this sketch is a little heavy handed in ink especially when I was fixing a few mistakes.  Oh well...

Quite a few people stopped to talk  including a Canadian chap, which was great.

Harbourside

          

Sketch club got together at the King St wharf on the weekend to sketch the paddle steamers and other boats there.  This is called the Show boat and is one of the paddle steamers. 

                     

This yellow building above is a Bond Store where they stored imported items until they cleared customs. This address is 1 Munn st, Millers Point and as you can see, it sits on the harbour.  It was lovely sitting high on the steps with friends sketching this scene.

Birthday spent at Gordon's Bay

   

                       

                      

My birthday was on Friday the 13th this year and I spent the morning at glorious Gordon's Bay in Sydney.  This is a small cove and is a marine park for any snorkellers or divers.  I'm a little afraid of sharks so leave that to others.

The man in the above sketch had 2 dogs, the one in the sketch and another bigger muscle-y one.  The other one wanted to play and would come up to me and bark then jump up on me and playfully bite my hand.  It wasn't good, I had wet sand all over me and the playful biting hurt.  The man did nothing.   The dog above was enjoying the water very much, running across the shallows continually. Now that is a good dog.

                        

Here are the boats pulled up on wooden slats.  Not much colour as the boats were all aluminium.

At one point about ten policemen jumped off the rocks and onto the beach, then went up the path and away.  I'm not sure what that was about.

It was a lovely birthday at the beach.

Dr Chau Chak Wing Building

  

                                

I've sketched this building a few times before but it was great to return recently for another go.  This place, nicknamed the Paper Bag building,  was designed by Frank Gehry and is part of the University of Technology.

Marrickville, Addison Road Community Centre

                               

Urban Setchers met at Addison Road Community Centre in Marrickville today.  This is the site of an old army barracks and many of the buildings from that time remain. The site I chose to sketch is a more recent building called The Bower and is made from straw and recycled materials.  I liked all the different materials and textures. This site is used to sell furniture, building materials and appliances that would otherwise go into landfill. 

Back to Bronte Beach

                                   

I returned to  Bronte beach on the weekend even though it was raining.  Luckily the skies cleared and the sun came out. The sketch below was the "warm up"  and is the North end of Bronte sketched from the hill close to it.  I love the view ( sketched above ) from the same spot looking south where there were two rock pools to swim in and a glorious headland.  The summer is over but to me it is an even better time to come to the beach.