I have been invited to run a series of classes at the beautiful and historic Dromkeen homestead, outside of Melbourne. On Sunday I spent the day at Dromkeen, exploring the house and grounds for places for the classes to sketch.

There are three classes planned, two hours each – all using watercolour Pencils. You can enroll for one or all three classes. All classes are about using watercolour pencils to capture your travels and experiences on paper. See details for times and dates and to book see Dromkeen’s Trybooking site

• travel sketching
• nature sketching
• food & drink sketching – a High Tea, where you get to sketch your cake and eat it too

The classes are all about sketching with watercolour pencils. After taking time to understand and play with the pencils ( You can achieve SO many effects with them on paper) , we go and sketch in the grounds., learning hints and tips along the way.

I was inspired and slightly overwhelmed at the choice of potential subject matter to sketch at Dromkeen (and there are also wet weather alternatives indoors). My day involved walking around the house inside and out, making various maps and marking out potential places to sketch that would give lots of options and opportunities .

I completed a number of 15 minute sketches of the house, trees and scenes to provide examples of what you can capture in a short amount of time.

The sketching Food and Drink class will be held in the beautiful dining room. On my test run I sketched my coffee – although there were plenty of lovely sweets I could have sketched in the tea room. The High Tea will be wonderful. Sketching your food and drink is a great way of capturing and remembering an event, time, place or travels.

I also collected some objects from the grounds to sketch later, as we will on my nature sketching class. Two of the drawings below were completed on the train back to Melbourne and the others at home

About Dromkeen: Dromkeen (built in 1889, for  Judge Arthur Chomley) is a historic homestead, featuring original Australian book illustration. The tearoom serves delicious home made food and quality coffee and tea. They  provide educational programs for visiting schools, gallery tours for other groups and also provide facilities for business functions, weddings, birthday parties & other special occasions.

I look forward to meeting you at the classes. Stay on after or arrive early and enjoy food and a cup of tea at the Tea Rooms, browse the Gallery, featuring Australia Children’s book illustrators.

I am also running Travel Sketching with Watercolour Pencil classes in Melbourne. See times and dates on my Trybooking site