Today I sketched events at Melbourne Rare Book Week. All sketched on location during the talk.

They are in watercolour pencil and Lamy Safari Joy ink pen in 13 x 19 cm Moleskin watercolour sketchbook. You can follow Melbourne Rare Book week on instagram and facebook @rarebookweek. You can follow me on instagram @alissaduke1 or facebook Alissa Duke Art 

I’ve added the information from the program below the sketches .

I attended two fascinating events today.

The medieval art of dying at State Library Victoria presented by Dr Anna Welch.

Medieval Christians were acutely aware of death, and spent much of their lives preparing for it. Through illuminated manuscripts and early printed works from the State Library collection,

Codex Sancti Paschalis , Franciscan missal from 1290. There was a small group of people for this talk and viewed some amazing rare books They were passed around the table on a display pillow.

We stood up around the table as the importance of these incredibly historic texts were explained to us. 

And for something completely different ..

Vampires and Victorian eroticism 

presented by Melbourne Library Service by Chris Browne

A big day with a choice of SIX events to choose to attend at Melbourne Rare Book Week.

I began with The MV Anderson Chess collection at State Library of Victoria. I knew that there was an impressive chess book collection and wanted to know the story behind it, I also saw the possibility of drawing something to do with chess and a black and white theme, There is a large chess set outside the State Library of Victoria, so I drew a few pieces before going inside.

Then onto the iconic Melbourne Cricket Club at the MCG for a presentation and book launch on “Oppy” the life of Sir Hubert Opperman, whose epic feats captivated the cycling world. 

Finally to Dark Tales: gothic traditions in children’s books & fairy tales. This is part of the Gothic series presented by Melbourne Library Service. Below is my drawing for the poster for this event. I am thinking of selling this as a print…

There was only one event today. The Australian Sketchbook: Colonial life and the art of ST Gill.

The room was full at the beautiful Old Treasury Building to listen as Dianne Reilly spoke of his life and great talent depicting the daily life of diggers in search of gold in the goldfields.  

I was trying to make the drawing different by adding colour to the richness of the grand furniture. 

Melbourne Rare Book Week Day 2. There were five amazing talks on today

I was able to attend three today. The day started with free Rare Book Appraisals by three experts. People brought along their books and prints to be appraised, find out about them and get a value.

There were already a few people gathered when I arrived and a steady stream of people came in during the time I was there. I overheard some interested snippets of conversation!

A quick tram ride across town to Armadale Cellars to hear Michael Hince talk on wine publishing in Australia, An entertaining talk, in the cellars surrounded  by wine, What else could I sketch!

In the evening Susannah Fullerton and Chris Browne presented on the literary greats who visited Australia what they observed.  thoughts of Rudyard Kipling, Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson were some of the readings given. 

What a day !

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