The Salisbury Service Station - Stanmore

The Salisbury Service station in Stanmore was opened in 1935 and has been run by the same family until it’s recent sale.

I drive past this charming service station in Stanmore every week or so, it always catches my eye. The cream and green colour scheme and the rounded roofing is classic art deco style, there aren’t many servos left that look like this, they are all so shiny and clinical now.  I thought it was a great example of the disappearing inner west and that it had to be included in my ‘Best Inner West’ show.

The sketch for this artwork came together quite quickly, I was inking the black linework before I knew it. I used a few different thicknesses in inking pens to get some depth in the drawing. The watercolour for this one was minimal, I wanted the building to really feature the cream canvas texture. I subtly watercoloured the surrounding shops and painted the Holden a darker retro green, which offered a good contrast against the fabric texture of the building.

I found the perfect frames for the show, a rustic natural birch box frame that sits approx 10cm deep from the wall. The colour and the texture of the frame highlights the detail adding to the charm of  the subject matter.

The Salisbury Service Station is now on display at Sweets Workshop for my ‘Best Inner West’ Exhibition, on until the 3rd Nov along with a few others. I will be featuring a couple of the pieces a week until the show closes.

Best Inner West Exhibition Opening

On Saturday I officially opened my art exhibition 'Best Inner West', featuring scenes and landscapes from Sydney's Inner West.

I wanted to thank everyone who came along to Sweets Workshop to offer their support for my show. The launch was great fun, it was so good to see so many familiar faces.

The show will be on until November, there is plenty of time to get in and have a look at my Inner West landscapes. To give you an idea of what 'Best Inner West' is all about, click here to read a little interview I did about the show  at Sweets Workshop, as well as a handful of snaps (above) from the opening party to check out. I hope you can get along to see it.

Inner West decorations

 A little fun idea I had for the launch of the exhibition was to create some decorations of some of the iconic buildings I had drawn. I contacted the fantastic Lyndsay over at Online Laser Cutting who etched my illustrations into colour transparent acrylic. 

I threaded twine through the top, so that you can dangle them from your windows or, well... anything. Now you can take a piece of the inner west with you where ever you go.

The Inner West decos are for sale at Sweets Workshop instore.

Best Inner West - An Exhibition of Local Landscapes

In a few weeks time I'll be opening a new exhibition of landscapes of Sydney's Inner West.

With a huge amount of inspiration in the local area, drawing scenes of Sydney's Inner West has become a little bit of an obsession. The show will feature some iconic landmarks and show off some of my favourite private commissions of people's homes.

'Best Inner West' opens over the weekend of the 11th and 12th of October and closes on the 3rd November. The official opening is at 2.00pm on Saturday 11th October at Sweets Workshop. The exhibition will also be open on Sunday 12th October as part of the festivities for Summer Hill's Neighbourhood Feast.   

I hope to see some friendly faces over the opening weekend, thanks to everyone for your support. You can join the Facebook event here