The shipyard that has gone…

As I said yesterday, one shipyard at the end of Rozelle Bay has gone, another seems to be on the way out. Sydney’s maritime history is disappearing before our eyes. When I took these photos there was still work going on, but clearing away had started also. Prime real estate, dontcher know.

This next image is the cabin/wheelhouse of an old ship.

The whole area was full of wonderful old rusted pieces of machinery. A sketcher’s paradise.

 

 

 

 

We paid two visits there. One was early in the morning to catch the cast shadows.

 

 

 

I have lots of photos. I’ve already used some to make solar plate etchings. I plan to do some paintings also. But now it has all gone, I know however many photos I took, it wasn’t enough.

Bicentennial Park

Back in Sydney and continuing with the water theme we went sketching at Bicentennial Park this week. I am so missing the blue skies and beautiful colours of the water on the south coast. This is on Sydney Harbour and this area is Rozelle Bay, just along from my previous sketch of Rozelle Bay. The sky was the most interesting thing because it was black in bands. Rain was forecast but it didn’t rain. It actually turned out sunny.

Whereas my previous sketch looked across at the Heritage Shipyard, this one looks at a marina on the left and a place where they seem to repair tugs and other working boats. I would love to get in there. So many things to draw. However it is a very busy place and I am certain they wouldn’t allow it.  One wonderful area like this off to the left has already fallen to developers, but I got there first with my camera.

Oh, this page was also prepped with blues and greens for the south coast, but it worked just as well on the harbour.

Huskisson sketching in the evening

Drinks before dinner at Huskisson RSL each evening with total waterfront views, comfortable leather lounges, and club prices. We took our sketchbooks and sat looking out the window from about 6pm, sketching, with a glass of wine in our hands. The view is total perfection and best seen on Huskisson RSL Facebook page.

In the afternoons at Huskisson, the wind comes up, so in the late afternoon of our first full day we went back to the hotel and had a browse through some art books. I wanted to do some experimentation, though I didn’t have a lot of art materials with me. I  decided to do some very free and loose underpainting.

The first sketch is with a Derwent Sketching pencil, dark wash. I think it was the least successful, because the watercolour was a bit strong to use pencil on top. The next two evenings we ate in the Bistro (seafood basket) which had the same view, so we were  there till well after dark and saw the light change on the water. The direction of the sea was a real challenge with this seascape because it was quite chaotic round that point.

Every afternoon, back in the room we would prep pages of our sketchbooks and try different things. The second sketch was done on our last night in Huskisson. It was also on underpainting – more about this method when I write about Day Two. This worked well. Lamy Safari pen. Very little colour needed to be added.

Iron Cove in a stiff breeze

It’s getting close to Christmas.  I’ve been wanting for a long time to go to the Botanic Gardens sketching again, but the traffic was against us. From my place, you have to go right through the city centre to the Gardens. we decided to skip it because of the Christmas traffic banked up everywhere. Instead we went to the little boat ramp at Iron Cove, where I used to go a lot when I used to swim at Leichhardt Pool.  It is just as pretty as ever, though the boats are now tied along the railing, rather than on the wooden jetty which was more picturesque.

It was a hot but cloudy day and it was blowing a gale. I’ve never sketched in such wind. We had to work in pencil because the sketchbook kept giving little inadvertent jumps, resulting in unintended ziggy-zaggy lines. Pen and watercolour were put on out of the wind later. From there we went to the Locantro cafe where they have the best food, though we only had a coffee this time. Then we went to Tim’s to buy some galaktoboureko for my neighbour. Tim’s is wholesale and everything is fresh and delicious. Once every blue moon I buy some as a thank you present for my neighbour :she always insists I have some too. It means I get to eat some without having to eat the whole 12 pieces myself.  And from there to Hoochie Mamma’s for lunch. Another place with great food.

EDiM5 and the James Craig

Oh boy it is difficult when Every Day in May is  on to keep up with the sketching, the posting, the commenting and the blogging. Several sketches backed up ready to blog, but no time.

Saturday was a day planned over a month ahead. We had arranged for three of us to sketch on board the James Craig. That is the tall ship I went out on just before Christmas. It was a beautiful day, lucky for us, though a bit on the cool side after a while. For a sailing ship, it is amazingly large once you get on board. The thing that is really noticeable is the sheer quantity of rope, and the variety of ways it is used and the different bits of hardware associated with it.

Before we went on board we met at the cafe (Yots) to sketch ‘something sweet’ for EDiM5. I got this small but colourful cupcake, which turned out to be a mud cake consistency.  Yum.

I sketched the lifebelt first. We needed somewhere to perch and also be out of the way of people who were touring the ship. We started out near the ship’s wheel and I now know (now you tell me!) that it is a difficult ship to steer because it is long and it takes 16 turns of the wheel. Not sure if that is from hard- a- port to hard-a-starboard, or whether it is from the straight ahead position.  

My second sketch was a quick one started in pen & watercolour and finished with my blue-grey watercolour pencil. When I got home, I realised that the white thingy-o needed to stand out more against the city buildings so I darkened them. It was either that or darken the thingy-o.

It gave the sketch a totally different look. The buildings, which are across Darling Harbour, look much closer and it looks like a rainy day. It’s only a sketch. The first one is much more indicative of the day though.

Farewell to the Duyfken

Because the Duyfken is leaving so soon, I felt the necessity to go on board, so two days after my previous visit I was at the Maritime Museum again. This time we got a Big Ticket pass to take us on board all the ships, however we only visited the sailing ships, Duyfken and James Craig. Annie did the James Craig tour (which I’ve done before) so I sat and sketched a lifeboat.

We got some lunch and sat in the shade opposite Duyfken again, and this time I bravely drew the whole ship except for the tops of the masts and the lantern at the bow. Even so, I felt I was drawing awfully small. I prefer to zoom in.

My third sketch of the day was the Tu Do, which means ‘freedom’. It is a vessel from 1977 that Vietnamese people arrived on. You can read the story of the To Do here.