Today was the first day of Melbourne Rare Book Week and began with two talks that exemplify the variety of talks and expertise that is shared by the organisations and speakers.

The first presentation was about the rare books survey at Museums Victoria Library. An appreciative audience asked lots of questions . There were a few librarians in the audience. 

and in the evening historian Shane Carmody spoke of the cultural legacy of Bishop Goold, the first Catholic Bishop of Melbourne. An audience of about 80 enjoyed his interesting and entertaining talk. 

For the last two weeks I have had to take my laundry to the local laundromat SoapBar. It is a few stops on the tram, modern and easy to use (once you know how) .  

Of course, I knew that I would sketch there. It is ‘given time’ as I knew how long the washing and then the drying was going to take. 

These are the first weeks’ sketches. I also had lunch there. 

Above is my most recent  visit . I wish the I had taken photos along the way . You will have to use your imagination as I describe the step by step process of creation of this page. 

First I sketched the washing machines and dryers with my Lamy Safari ink pen in my Moleskine 19×13 cm watercolour journal. I am generally never unhappy with a page of sketches. However, at this stage the page just didn’t feel right , so I added the black watercolour pencil and it softened the page. 

I knew that I had lots of time left so I started drawing the laundry basket in Payne’s Grey watercolour pencil and then added more colour and then the used the waterbrush to pull the colour across the page . I then drew over some of the finer, harder lines of the basket edge and pattern of holes. 

I still had dryer time , so drew one of the tokens in Cool Grey IV watercolour pencil. 

Once at home I wrote my notes on the page.

Then instagrammed – and received a lovely reply from the Laundromat .

and then decided to write this post. I hope that it explains my thought process.

If this was in another country and I was on holidays It would be travel sketching,  and this is the sort of page I would sketch when travelling, as it is all part of the journey.  Join me in travel sketching classes in Melbourne. For more details:  https://www.trybooking.com/eventlist/travelsketching

A very short post this week, as I have moved house over the past few days. There have been moment of waiting when I could sketch and have been able to document my move.

Man With a Van removalists

I sketched the removalists while sitting on the stairs waiting.

The night before the move – all the boxes lined up. I meant to add more detail, but ran out of time/ energy.

My bears in my backpack. 

Now that the absolute basic are in place in each room I can spend time organising my art cupboards, greeting card supplies, travel sketching class kits and everything else. Fun ! 

I have over 30 boxes of books to unpack at some time.

We strolled to Fitzroy Gardens and had a delicious lunch at Kere Kere Green cafe. I sketched the outdoor area while we relaxed for a while before going back home to unpack more boxes.

A house warming present of a nest that was found on the ground . It is tiny and from South East Queensland – does anyone know which bird it is from. This is now the smallest nest i have and will join my others in a display cabinet, when I unpack them.

If you like the idea of a nest housewarming gift , I have a series of greeting cards printing with my watercolour pencil drawings of feathers and nests available for purchase on my ETSY site 

Melbourne Rare Book Week (MRBW)  will be held from 29 June – 8 July 2018. Bookings are now open for over 40 free talks . See the Program  

What is it ? MRBW  includes a wide variety of interesting topics on book-related themes. There is something for all interests and taste. So, once again they welcome bibliophiles, established collectors and those new to book collecting. It culminates in the Melbourne Rare Book Fair.

For the past few years I have been involved in a few ways including being the official sketcher on location at many of the events during the week. To see my sketches from previous years , just type MRBW in the search box at the top right of the page and you will get a list of results to click-through to. These will give you an idea of some of the past events and what I sketch.

This year I will be sketching on location at many of the events, and am also involved in the Melbourne Library Service part of the program. I was commissioned to draw the posters  for the MRBW events. They have five events .

My original watercolour pencil drawings are on display on East Melbourne Library alongside some very interesting rare books that began the Gothic novel and later books that were influenced by them. My drawings also feature in the Melbourne Library Service brochure and their events in the MRBW program !!! It so exciting to see them in print and to be involved in this unique event.

The planning for this year’s  week began as soon as 2017 event finished (and even before that). In February three of us spent a long weekend, watching classic films based on the classic (and very readable) Dracula. Ideas for the posters were put down on paper, there was lots of google image searching and putting sketching concepts on paper. 

All of this came together in Stage One this Saturday as we put up the exhibition of rare books, artifacts and my art work.

I also decided that it was about time that I read some of these classic (and not so classic) Gothic novels including Dracula, The Mysteries of Udolpho, The Castle of Otranto, A Sicilian Romance, The Raven. 

It has been a creative event so far and I am looking forward to attending and sketching the events in June/July. !