A few sketches on the way in my spare time. I made the most of opportunities I had with my family and friends.

I had the most ‘spare’ time on my own at the airport in the early morning. I like to draw planes. They more I do them the better it gets !

After I arrived we spent the afternoon walking  to and through Southbank , including a visit to the Museum. This sketch was done in the last few minutes . Tiredness levels were increasing for everyone by then. Time to go home.

The big day of the fun run “Bridge to Brisbane”
Sketching while (slowly) walking across Victoria Bridge into Brisbane city

At the end of the run or walk – the watermelon is a treat !

CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF ROALD DAHL ( the centenary of his birth)

Melbourne Library Service

A whole day of events for all ages at Southbank Library. There is a display for Roald Dahl books including first editions and other interesting Dahl books. In the evening Chris Browne gave a talk on the publishing history and the important landmarks in Dahl’s output for children and adults. There is also a guest speaker reading from books.

I attended and sketched at the daytime sessions for children. They clearly loved their visits to the library and the interaction with the staff and the love of the books there. There were about 35 children from 2 –  5 years (and their parents and some babies) at the Dahl-themed stories, short film  and other rhymes and songs. A new generation of book lovers in the making.

A NOSE FOR OLD WINE BOOKS

Hince on Wine

Michael Hince

I had used Google Street view to see what the building looked like and knew that I wanted to draw it ! I arrived over an hour early and stood across the road , leant up against a tree and drew the building. I put some pencil lines down first, (I usually do for buildings so that they fit on the page) and then built up layers of watercolour pencil.

State Library Victoria  Alisa Bunbury

ILLUSTRATED BOOKS

Monash University Library

Stephen Herrin

THE TYRANNY OF DISTANCE – 50 YEARS

Graeme Davison and Geoffrey Blainey

A storytelling session of some of the more macabre Grimm Brothers fairly tales. We discovered the original versions of some of the stories that we thought we knew well. We heard about the history and meaning behind the stories, while enjoying some delicious cheese and wine.

I was drawing in the dark here, a challenging thing to do. I have been challenged during this week to include the person giving the talk in my sketch. I have achieved a slight likeness very few times. When I attend an event, I introduce myself to the organisers (and sometimes the speaker) before they begin. I explain who I am and that I will be sketching the event. I show the previous days and let them see that I am not drawing portraits, but capturing the feeling of the event and being there.  For this final event I went back to watercolour pencil.

700 YEARS OF DANTE

State Library Victoria  Dr Anna Welch

Italian poet Dante Alighieri wrote one of the medieval world’s most famous poems, La commedia divina between 1308 and 1320. Seven hundred years on, readers and artists continue to draw inspiration from it. This talk explored Dante’s masterpiece using the State Library of Victoria collection, from early 16th-century printed editions to 21st-century artist’s books. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to view some amazing books.

‘MARVELLOUS MELBOURNE’ AND ITS PUBLISHERS

Dr Lucy Sussex

In the 1880s Melbourne was termed ‘Marvellous’, a boom-town. It was one of the wealthiest andlargest cities, world-wide and was the book trade centre of Australasia, supporting outposts of Imperial English publishing, But the great majority of publishing in Melbourne was what we would call independent, usually around a nexus of bookselling, imports, with associated printing plants, leading to local publishing. A fascinating insight !

YOU CAN’T DRAW IN BOOKS?

Melbourne Library Service

Alissa Duke and Chris Browne

Yesterday was the start of Melbourne Rare Book Week. I have an exhibition and I have also been invited to sketch at the events. I will be sketching at 20 of the 55 events of this ‘week’ (which is actually ten days) and posting on my blog each evening.

I have tried to visit the venues beforehand to sketch the building . I hope that will give my sketches context and interest. I plan to draw the speaker and also the audience, adding colour somewhere on the page. I will learn as I go, experimenting at each event .

The first event I attended was RARE BOOKS AND RARE TALES OF AUSTRALIA’S ORIENT, a talk by Professor David Walker, a historian who examines the many different ways that Australians have written about Asia. He discussed some of the key books which comment upon the rise of Asia in the late nineteenth century and its implications for Australia. Among these books are invasion stories, spy stories and travellers’ tales. Many of these books are now exceedingly rare.

My favourite title of the evening was Battle of Mordialloc written in the 1880s to awake the readers to the possibility of invasion of Victoria by forces from Japan, China & Russia. (Mordialloc is a outer Melbourne suburb……). The book I want to read is Madame Izam: a Tourist story…

The second event I attended was BOOKS FROM A TURBULENT TIME: a talk by Des Cowley and Richard Overell from State Library Victoria. They discussed the single greatest bequest of rare books that came to the State Library Victoria in 2015. They shared their insights into the John Emmerson Collection, and discussed some fascinating items from this extraordinary donation of 17th and 18th century material.

I sketched while I sat in the audience and once quietly moved to the back of the room. These two events were held at the same venue and I saw a few familiar faces. There was wine and food and lots of interesting conversation after the talks.