Ashfield House Illustration with Vintage Cars

I was very excited to draw this place. For 1, It was a Bungalow. 2, It had cool automobiles and 3, It had a beautiful large magnolia tree. Lots of fun working on this one, I'm really happy with the composition and I think the crumpled paper texture really made the large tree on the left.

House Illustration Commission

Another house illustration for a lovely client. They own a cute little cottage in my local area, complete with two cute pups. I found just the right cardigan cuff to use for the corrugated iron.

Pretty in Pink – The Marie-Louise Salon, Enmore Road

The Marie-Louise Salon has been an interest of mine for some time, (call it an obsession if you will), I was so taken with it that I had to draw it for my exhibition 'The sun Sets in the West' in 2010. For as long as I remember, it had been closed, every now and then the little knick-knacks in the window would change or be decorated with scarves and tinsel… I had always wanted to see what it was like inside. 

The shop had recently sold and on Sunday, the new owners had an open invitation to walk through and make an offer on some of the memorabilia that had been hidden behind closed doors for years. Here's a few pics from my visit to the Salon. 

Marie-Louise kept old bottles of Flex conditioner, vintage boxes of blue hair rinse and hair die (ouch) and of course retro hair roller sets. There were a few of the original hair setting chairs left (the rest had been claimed) and the original 1950's pink wash basins were just charming.

I'm very interested in seeing what the salon becomes, but I'm very glad that the famous facade is heritage listed. 

Commission to Draw a Historical House

I haven't published a lot of my house illustration commissions but recently I had the pleasure of completing a commission of a local house of historical significance. It was a District Governors Cottage, built to house gas workers in 1894.

The owner of the house wanted a good representation of the house and it's original features. I've enjoyed drawing the shape of this house, with the decorative brickwork on the facade. With the combination of fabric, lace, water colour and pencil, this was the result.

Turning the Mill into Gocco Print Gold

So far out of the sketches I've completed I have decided on two that are graphic enough to create a gocco print from. One has the of the zoom sketch with 'Mungo Scott' lettering, brick work buildings and silos, the second includes the two silos with the rubble at the base. (Pictured above is the super special edition with metallic ink embellishment).

For the 'Mungo Scott' print kept it 2 colour, sky blue and black line work. I've printed some single colour  black on some craft paper and I have had a little fun with this and make a super limited edition version with metalic ink and hand water colour.

'The Mungo Scott' with hand water colour.

The screens used to create the 'Mungo Scott' Gocco Print

For the silo print I'm using 3 colours in 2 screen passes. In the first screen I've used light green and sky blue, positioning the ink on the screen where I want it to fall. You know me, I don't mind a bit of overlap, or an off register effect. The next screen in black only... The beauty and the beast of print gocco is that it is hard to register your colours. Some are bang on, some just off,  others way off. It seems the harder I tried, the worse it got. Haha.

 

'The Old Mill'

Screens and scrap paper from 'The Old Mill' Gocco Print

Sketching the Mungo Scott Flour Mill

 

Being based around Summer Hill in the inner west, and often riding the train home, the Mungo Scott Mill is a familiar landmark.

The Flour Mill was built in 1922 and was owned by a number of different companies, including Mungo Scott. In 2007 the Mill was sold to a developer, it is now the site of the new light rail, with a further plan to build and apartment block and shops.

I've knew that I wanted to draw the Mill before the development had started, so I took an excursion out to document the Mills public face from all of the sides and started sketching. It looks like a little village, with clusters of buildings in various cylindrical, rectangular and misc shapes.

On the old Canterbury Rd side there is a lot of discarded building materials and rubble leading up to the cylindrical silos, makes for an interesting texture to draw.

The Sweets Workshop annual exhibition 'My Goodness My Gocco' is coming up and I think I might turn some of these sketches into gocco prints!

Mini landscapes of Sydney's Inner West

I've turned my landscapes into art that will fit into your pocket. I have selected 8 of my favourite scenes from my exhibition 'The Sun Sets in the West' to go into this little collection. Of course they double as postcards to spread word about the charm of Sydney's Inner West.

It's for sale at Sweets Workshop, and comes in a hand made yellow pouch.

Petersham Roller Rink in Real Living Magazine

 

Last year we entered and won a kitchen competition through Real Living Magazine. After a lot of time and hard work, our shiny new kitchen is featured in the September issue, currently out now.

My illustration 'Get Your Skates On' – Petersham Roller Skating Rink even makes an appearance in the magazine. Thanks Real Living!

The Sun Sets in the West Exhibition Opening

Here's just a few snaps from the exhibition opening on Saturday. A fun day was had, aside from the nerves and the last minute bits and bobs. Thanks to John D-C for his hard work and support, I don't think I would have reached my deadline without it.

The Sun Sets in the West

My new exhibition The Sun Sets in the West will open on the 9th April 2011 at Sweets Workshop in Summer Hill.

The Sun Sets in the West is a collection of landscape scenes from my experience of living in Sydney’s Inner West. The day-to-day landscape is rich with colours, shapes & textures, not to mention history and personal stories. This series of landscapes is built from fabric, water colour and pencil.

Opening day: Saturday 9th April (until 4th May)

Time: Gallery opens at 10am, official exhibition opening at 2pm.

Location: Shop 4, 58-60 Carlton Crescent, Summer Hill NSW

(Just opposite Summer Hill Station)

www.sweetsworkshop.com

Coffee & Sweets

For the Food Fight – Sweet stuff exhibition at Sweets Workshop, I worked on a new illustration including food, sweet food... well, it's a place where you can get sweet food (of course I've created a landscape). It's a great little coffee shop, just on the corner called Espresso Train. The building was very nice to draw, with it's rounded brick Art Deco design. Coffee & Sweets is available for sale at Sweets Workshop.

These are the talented three sisters who make the sweet muffins from the coffee shop.

Autumn in Kurrajong

The colours of the leaves in our family backyard are always spectacular in Autumn. I haven't been back home for a while, so I thought I'd illustrate it to conjure up some home time feelings... (and as a gift for Father's Day).

Some water colour tests for the illustration

Balmain pubs get a fabric makeover

Two pubs sit face to face on the corner of Beattie and Mullens Streets Balmain. These two ornate buildings are not only easy on the eye, but also hold memories of working in Balmain. I chose this spot to illustrate, with fabric, for a friends leaving gift, we had shared a few after work drinks and pub lunches at Dick's and The Exchange.

Coloured (paper) landscapes

After a few hours spent playing with piles of coloured tissue paper and glue, I'm getting some lovely layering effects that are starting to look like landscapes.

Me and Monet

While working on my landscape illustrations, I have been revisiting some of the landscape artists I studied years ago. Claude Monet and the Impressionists (mid 1800’s) have always struck a cord with me. I am particularly drawn to their use of colour, light and textured brush strokes.

A couple of years ago I visited the Neue Pinakothek Art Gallery in Munich. The gallery was exhibiting one of Monet’s artworks from the Water Lilies series. I stood in front of it for a long while, I got a bit lost in the texture of the brush strokes... I’m sure I could almost hear the water.

I have been inspired by Monet’s obsession with the outdoors and the effects of weather and light on a subject. A great example of this is his painting series Haystacks. The idea of doing a series to reflect the change in conditions is something I would really like in incorporate in my Sydney landscape illustrations.

Unlike Monet, I’ve been visiting different locations armed with my camera to capture the lighting effects on a number of subjects, rather than taking multiple canvases out to the fields for hours or days. I’m pretty excited about this project, I’ll publish more as I go.

First landscape

I created this illustration for two reasons.
1 – A friend who I used to work with in Balmain recently moved overseas. She was looking for something that she could hang on her wall to remind her of home.
2 – I wanted to see if I my use of fabrics and textures could be used to illustrate a landscape.

Balmain has many old buildings with interesting detail in the features... it would do nicely as an Australian street scene.

I spent an afternoon searching for the right composition, and the right feel (Australian).

From there I worked up some sketches and outlines to follow.

Added some fabric for colour, texture and shadow – I ended up using several parts of my brown vest to create some of the shading on the building.

And used some water colour to lighten the density of the fabric knits, and create some distance.

After doing this project, it has spurred me on to do more landscapes like it. I'll keep you posted.