that other Easter Show

Watercolour and charcoal

The Easter Show is an agricultural show that comes to Sydney each year, a way to celebrate all the country has to offer.  The prize cows, chickens, pigs, horses, dogs, cats and all domestic animals are all there .  There is wood cutting exhibitions, art, craft, cakes and much more on show.  Of course, side show alley and lots of rides are a big part of the show.  This used to be at Moore Park but a number of years ago moved to the Olympic park.  As an alternative to the real Easter show there is a smaller show at the  old site of Moore Park and the sketch group went there to draw. This watercolor is my result of our morning get together .

more Cooks River Valley

Charcoal and watercolour, Bass St Earlwood

The weather has been so great this Easter weekend that I have been taking the opportunity to do quite a lot of sketching.  Here are two more from the river valley in Earlwood.  I did the bigger one on Friday afternoon and thought I would like a closer up sketch of the house and tree so did that today.
The Umbrella Tree, with the fronds of red flowers were being enjoyed by the parrots.

Watercolour and charcoal 20/4/14

Along the Cooks River

Watercolour and charcoal

 I started the sketch above last weekend and got rained out twice.  I was so keen on working on it that I continued work in the rain, finally giving up and then returning when I thought the wet might hold off.  But, no, the rain came again so it got finished this morning.  The light was different today and tried to get it to today's conditions.  This scene is from along the river.  I was sitting on the park land between the houses and the water and the many people who walk, run and bike along the river track.  A number of people came across to see what I was doing which was kind of nice.
The second sketch is a closer up view of the tower.
The Cooks River is a wonderful asset to the life in Sydney's inner west.  Love it.  More sketches of this area to come.

Watercolour sketch

the neighbourhood

Watercolour and charcoal, view from the back of the house looking north

Watercolour and charcoal, view from balcony looking at Shirley's place and beyond

It has been raining in Sydney, for what seems like weeks and weeks.  Today is no different and I have a mission to sketch the neighbourhood.  I have plans of sketching scenes around the river but due to weather conditions I have painted from my balcony and from windows in the mornings before work  and today.  These are the results.
Earlwood is the suburb I live in and it was originally settled after WW1.  There are plenty of nice Federation houses on big blocks here as well as very fancy huge new homes.  The little streets where I live, however, have houses which are quite modest as they were for the workers from the quarry.

Watercolour and charcoal, view from front balcony looking north

St Peters

Watercolour and charcoal

St Peters is an urban area just past Newtown in Sydney's inner west.  It was named after St Peter's Anglican church, consecrated in 1839.  Before that the area was known as Cooks River.
Thomas Smyth was the first landowner of the area, he subdivided it for wealthy landowners and country houses were built along the river. 
St Peters was known for it's excellent clay and became an important brick making area in the 1870s.  With this industrial work, working class people came into the area.  Many of the estates were torn down, other industry came into the area and simple cottages were built.
The industry is now moving out to outer suburbs and St Peters is popular place to live, close the city and of course, Newtown.
Urban Sketchers went to St Peters today and we did fairly quick sketches of 30-40 min each.  These are my efforts.  It looked like rain all morning but luckily it held off.  You can see the skies are mainly grey with a little blue.

watercolour and charcoal, St Peter's street

 

Chimney from the pottery works in the background, rooftops in the foreground

Kathleen Morris

Kathleen Morris

I am really enjoying meeting other like minded people in the sketch groups I belong to.  We live in the city and most of our meet ups involve sketching the urban environment.  Kathleen Morris (1893-1986) is a Montreal artist who also captured the city.
Kathleen, like many other members of her art group called Beaver Hall, was from a wealthy family.  She had a handicap which impaired her coordination and speech yet she had a wonderful sense of humour and was determined to live a life of joy despite her problems.


I love her winter scenes of the horses and carts waiting outside the church to take their owners home for lunch.
The bold colours and simplified forms make these paintings very charming.  No wonder Kathleen Morris paintings have been made into stamps and Christmas cards over the years.

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.