Sydney Town Hall Grand Organ

   

                                

Sydney Sketch club attended an Organ recital at Sydney Town Hall a few days ago.  The organists, all young, were great.  The organ, itself, is spectacular, installed in 1890 and at the time was the best and the biggest in the world.  There are nearly 9000 pipes which seems rather a lot!

                                        

The organ was built by William Hill and son in London and to replace it now would cost around 20 million dollars. 

                                                      

This is a sketch of one part of Sydney Town Hall facade, around the side facing St Andrews Cathedral.

Great to enjoy one of Sydney's significant buildings on a hot summer day.

 

Fire stations

        

I have a few days off work due to public holidays and a couple of extras. When this happens I like to have a project...this time it is looking at fire stations. We don't look at this type of building often  as they are just part of a streetscape and have been around forever. They are closing down though with councils amalgamation, which is a shame.  The charming  station above is in a suburb called Campsie, built in 1912. The script on it is lovely.

          

This fire station is in Newtown. One of the firemen came over to see what I was doing and then posed out front.  I wasn't quick enough to capture it though and then they had a call and left, sirens blazing.

          

   This is Marrickville fire station on a very hot, sunny day.  Many of these buildings are built in the early 1900's when horse drawn equipment was still the go. They were built for this and the doors are a little narrow.

More fire stations to come.

Merry Christmas

        

It's nice to have a day off before Christmas Day, a day to tidy up and start some cooking. There were plans to make shortbread today but I did this sketch instead. Presents are ready and under the tree.

Merriest of Christmases to you! Have a lovely day and a wonderful year ahead.

One good idea

    

Every Christmas I scratch around my mind for an idea for the annual Christmas card. I have friends who get very cranky if they don't receive a hand made card in the mail, so it is important not to disappoint. The idea doesn't often present itself easily and time is spent in a little state of frustration.  The subject  usually ends up being something that is of interest at that time.  For example, last year I was thrilled to see a Supurb fairy wren in my yard and so this was the subject on 2015's  card.  

Recently I saw, and also sketched, a vintage Ford half ton truck from a nearby street. About the same time I started to think about Xmas cards, so the Ford became the subject. The truck is like one my dad drove , he would cut a tree down and it would come home like in the sketch, although the tree wasn't usually so symmetrical!

I've printed the linocut on a vintage map of the south Coast and this is where Christmas holidays were often spent in my Australian life.  Everything came together and so I was pleased with this year's effort.

At work we have a competition decorating ginger bread houses.  Each office has a kit and we can do anything with it. We pushed the idea a little by, again, using the truck idea and making it out of gingerbread. You can't see it but there's a gingerbread tree in the back. 

So, one idea spread across a couple of idea requiring projects....done and dusted.

        

Fire Station Leichhardt

        

I love this Arts and Crafts style fire station in Leichhardt, built  between 1905 to 1909.  It was  designed by the Goverment architects for horse drawn fire fighting  carriages. 

        

         

Back to Leichhardt

                             

Sketch club met in Leichhardt on Sunday and I started with the sketch below of the town hall. It's a beautiful building , a confection of colour.

I then  looked to the corner diagonally from town hall to the scene above. The colourful awnings and funny little structures built on to the original Victorian building attracted a few of us to sketch.

                                   

Revolver Cafe

                                     

A friend and I sketched the side of this Annandale Cafe yesterday.  We came here last year and sketched from the front.  At that time one of the cafe staff came over to inspect our work.  Again, this time the same girl came over to have a look. She even remembered us from last year which was nice.

                                      

This is the earlier sketch from the front.

Lavender Bay

                                  

Urban sketchers gathered at Lavender Bay which is close to Sydney Harbour bridge on the north side.  I sketched the top drawing from the end of the pier. A few people came along and were then picked up by yachts of various levels of luxury.  The house on the left was originally owned by the mayor of North Sydney. A lovely spot.

                                    

I was sitting overlooking Wendy Whitely's garden for this sketch. I was a little surprised when a bush Turkey strolled past.