Pre: Expressive Urban Sketching Workshop adventures

April 3, 2014 | 1 Comment


I think that I need to do a few double-post days in order to catch up with things here.
So here goes… back to the week of our workshop…and the two days beforehand.

Despite having a pretty good idea of the what and when and where with our workshop, Paul and I spent most of the Wednesday on Cockatoo Island refining our content and testing locations for the exercises. I really love preparing content for my sketching classes so to have someone to do this with was extra fun.


 
Here are a few photos and sketches that I did that day as prep for the workshop.


These sketches were from a location we changed on the next day…I do love this part of the island (the back of the industrial precinct) but there was not really enough shade for our group of 25 sketchers so we moved to further along the Sutherland Dock area.


We ran out of time so I did this particular sketch from a photo – a practice run for a demo that we were proposing on Day 2. This sketch was started after 11pm that night.


We then headed back to the Rocks to meet up with Uma (USK Montreal) for dinner. We went to Le Pain Quotidien – the old Police Station where my recent weekly sketching classes were based. Instead of using one of the prison cells at the back, we sat in the front room at the lovely communal table.  So tired but still I sketch! A lovely evening – but I had to rush off to get home and do some admin work!


As we hadn’t done any sketching for ourselves on the island, we agreed to meet late morning and head back across. We also needed to seriously plan the wet weather options. I got into the city earlier than expected and was able to sneak in a quick visit to the Tea Cosy. I was so incredibly busy that I need just to find a little time out. It seems that when I relax I still sketch! The act of sketching often gives me much-needed thinking time….ok, the tea and the scones with jam and cream go down well also!


It was such a treat to sit at the cafe and sketch one of my favourite parts of the island with Paul. We planned to avoid this area during the workshop as it would be the main part of the Biennale exhibition! (BTW look at the art Paul creates on the table with all that splashing!)


As I write this blog post 2 weeks later… the whole week seems like a bit of a dream (after all the preparation and talking about it for months, has it come and gone) …but seeing this photo of my sketch and Pauls makes it really real. I think there is something special about seeing a place through someone’s artwork … and to see the Singapore splashes of Paul’s describing our favourite place to sketch in Sydney is some ways seems more real than photos!


Up at the top of the island we sat in the cool blue shade and sketched the view in front of us … I just won’t mention the fact that the subject matter was the male toilet block!… running out of time to sketch but the workshop prep was in control.. That was the important thing.


Time to get back to ‘the mainland’ for the Meet and Greet….

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