I hope that everyone had a lovely Christmas break with whatever you had planned.
I flew home for a week and spent a festive time, with many friends and family visiting us. The table was decorated and food always out to offer visitors, who also brought more food! I always had a colourful array of things to draw during my holidays.
I was delighted to be invited to have a stall to sell my greeting cards at today’s local East Melbourne Library Community BBQ. We were very fortunate to have good weather (after some some shockingly hot few days) for our outdoor event.
There were stalls and people from the local Melbourne Men’s Shed Inc, East Melbourne Community Herb Garden Group, East Melbourne Historical Society and Melbourne Rooftop Honey. and me . I took along a selection of greeting cards printed from my drawings of books and libraries, Christmas themes and nature sketches and I was pleased with the amount of sales.
This free community barbecue (sausage sizzle and curry puffs) had Christmas goodie bags for children and festive poetry readings. The queues for the food were long and people stayed around and chatted for a while as well.
I had fascinating conversations with local people who were visiting the library to borrow books or to visit the BBQ. We think about 400 people visited (based on the number of sausage in bread and curry puffs that were eaten). I caught up with friends and met new people (including three who live in the same apartment block as me !)
I also had a poster about my watercolour pencil classes which started a few lovely conversations and some potential bookings.
Well done to everyone who was involved and thank you to East Melbourne Library for organising this great event and inviting me to be involved ! It was a wonderful community event.
Yesterday was a very special watercolour pencil sketching class – Christmas High Tea at Dromkeen.
I arrived at the historic homestead Dromkeen to find the dining room magnificently decorated for our Christmas High Tea watercolour pencil class. I have held classes in the beautiful room here during the year, but on Saturday it was looking grand and festive. Dromkeen is about 1 1/2 hours from Melbourne and hosts a wonderful array of events during the year, It has a children’s literature centre, art gallery and tea rooms. Denise and Bernadette cooked a beautiful selection of savouries and sweets, which were set on on the tiered plates and we also had tea and coffee. It was all so beautiful to sketch and to eat.
There was full class of ten and they all went home after the three hour class with full stomachs and many sketches. There was so much to choose to sketch: the appealing food, pretty plates and matching tea cups, ornaments or tiered plates
It was a lovely way to end my classes for the year, There are more watercolour pencil sketching classes planned for January, February and March next year, These include Travel sketching, Nature sketching and Sketching Memories and Nostalgia. Details of times and dates and bookings here
This past weekend I took a long weekend to travel with a sketching friend, Angela ( instagram @lunchsketch) to Warrnambool and Port Fairy . We were going to Port Fairy for the Exhibition Opening night of the Blarney Books & Art Biblio Art Prize. We both had entries accepted. It was such a thrill so see mine exhibited among so many creative works. That is another story….
A long weekend gave us three days of sketching ! I completed 25 pages of sketches (Angela was about the same ) and two postcard giveaways on Instagram. Today I am showing you the sketches from DAY ONE – the Great Ocean Road, My sketches are with watercolour pencil and Lamy Safari ink pen.
The Great Ocean Road is a famous drive with 243-kilometre (151 mi) stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia . Built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932 and dedicated to soldiers killed during World War I, the road is the world’s largest war memorial. The road is an important tourist attraction in the region.
It has beaches and stunning craggy cliffs composed of limestone and sandstone. You look out on the wild and windswept Southern Ocean. The coastline is dramatic ! The stories associated with it are too.
The day was grey and cool ( 16 degrees) and very windy along the coast, At the stops where stayed and sketched we found a sheltered nook to stand in.
The tourists came in waves as the buses came and left. They did not stay for a long time. As sketchers, driving by car, at our own pace, we are fortunate to be able stop and stay longer. When you sketch, you look and observe and see things that a quick photo would not see. We sketched and could hear the waves crashed in on the rocks.
Travelling the Great Ocean Road was a wonderful experience and the dramatic coastline continued to amaze me. I was very fortunate took have slightly local person (Angela) who could tell me a bit of background and stories of these places.