Sunny autumn day in Christchurch

Some interesting and exciting new things are happening in the central Christchurch rebuild these days.  The old and oppressive brick buildings on Manchester Street suffered badly in the earthquake and their removal has opened up the once dark and crowded avenue into a wonderful view of the city in flux.  Thankfully this openness appears set to continue as low rise apartment buildings pop up with large grassy public areas and parks.

I sat on a small grassy rise in one such public space eating a picnic lunch to sketch this mixed media view of a snippet of the city - collage, pen and ink, watercolour, coloured pencils and gouache.  All the goodies in my art bag.

I love clear frosty days in Canterbury.


Shelley (June 2019)

Zen and the art of motorcycles 2

My partner is restoring a 90's dirt bike and I am finding the process very inspiring.  There are some challenges to capturing the fast moving processes in the garage, but also opportunities to study muddy, intricate mechanical parts.  

Some of my previous explorations in mixed media have come in very handy, allowing me to layer, collage and use opaque media (gouache) to build the image.

Spray painting the bike frame, the fumes were all encompassing.  Waiting for the action to start gave me opportunity to explore the clutter that accumulates around the restoration process in the garage.

I "borrowed" the carburettor and sketched it like I would a building.

Back to the action.  Here I was drawing the motor as it was being cleaned, which meant it had to change positions fairly often.  I decided to carry on with my lines through the movement.  So rather than an exact sketch of the motor, it is an amalgamation of the things I saw as I drew.
Then I experimented with gouache marks to represent the different parts on the smaller sketch.

And this is where the project has led me so far - utilising lots of my mixed media tricks!

The collage elements were drawn from life on scraps of scrapbook paper on one of my many trips to the music store with my partner - another of his hobbies that I find inspiring.  I already had them stuck to the sketchbook page, so I drew the brake parts straight over top.  Selected areas of gouache to pick out details and splattered watercolour for the years of mud and grime!

Shelley (May 2019)

Hard Things To Sketch: Sketching Therapy after the Christchurch Shootings

I travel a lot in my job and on 15th March, I was about to catch a plane back to Christchurch when I discovered the flight was cancelled.  A few texts later and the group I was travelling with, realised something terrible was happening in Christchurch.  I rapidly organised to drive a rental car back and begun a long drive, with the radio giving constant updates, as I headed back to my friends and family in the heart of what was a 'war zone'.  It was one of the most deeply traumatic days I've experienced. The mosque was something that I, like so many people from Christchurch, felt emotionally linked to.  Over the next few days I found myself grieving with thousands of others.  For me I just grabbed my sketchbook and begun a bit of sketching therapy.

It took a couple of days to pick up the courage.  The first time I went to the rapidly growing wall of tributes I had only intended to go for half an hour but stayed for a couple of hours.  Sketching while trying to hold back emotion, was something quite new and difficult.

This first one was one of the biggest floral arrangements I have seen.  It was made with the seed pods of the local, South Island flax.  The two bunches were adorned with a islamic and christian symbols.  Next to them, on one side, was a simple kiwi, with the words "they are us" painted above: this became the identifying phrase of grieving.  On the other side, someone had grabbed a cardboard box and painted their tribute and tied it to the gates.

This next sketch is a bit of a composite of the crowds and people's personal, painted tributes... It was when I realised the media presence, which made everything a bit surreal.

 For this last sketch on my first day, I crossed the road to record a bit of that media circus... Tents, generators, huge satellite dishes, reporters reporting.  It was a different side of grieving.  I found it quite personally confronting, and sketching was again, my way of recording it and letting it go.

The next day was even harder. After a couple of days back at work everyone's 'wheels' began to fall off.  It was as if we were all reliving the hard parts of our past and were having to do it in public, with the people we work with.  It wasn't the easiest place to be so I thought I'd go back and do a couple of other sketches...

 This tribute was for a young Bangladeshi guy who was in NZ on his own: no family here but his workmates, who clearly felt things deeply.  They had simply picked up his Hi-vis gear and written their own, personal message to him on it.  This still brings a tear to me.  It's so deeply personal. Some mates in the tough world of contracting, who really were struggling with the grief.  It was Zakaria's 34th Birthday.  He had gone to the mosque to celebrate his birthday.

 This last sketch was a tribute from some school kids written on post-its, formed into big hearts.  It was amazing and people stood and read as many of the tributes they could...

I try to sketch every day but, after this, I couldn't sketch for at least a week.  Getting back with our Christchurch City Sketchers after this, was a much needed return to normality.

As hard as it is, sketching can work wonders in processing the hard things in life.  The memories of this are permanent, the feelings raw and real, and I wasn't 'personally affected'.  This was trauma on a city scale, returning after we thought it had gone.  The city is a stronger and more together place as a result.

Foreground to background

An interesting layering of building colours and textures, with spray tag as a repetitive element.

Upcoming Drawings Exhibition

If by any chance you are in Christchurch on December and you like the Urban Sketchers, don´t miss this exhibition. 

Up the river

Fancy for a boat tour on the Avon?  Enjoy a sunny afternoon with the family on a guided journey up the river on Christchurch. Come an see the duckling, the eels and explore the botanical gardens nature on a very romantic tour.

Back facades

Christchurch city center these days is a total different place. Who saw the center 4 years ago as a fenced and closed red zone area and see it now,  with a brand new face and street life popping out everywhere, still thinks that its unreal. There are a few buildings with uncertain future though, some still carry that old brick industrial feeling but they are getting harder to find and most of them will disappear. These back of buildings facing a parking lot, did my sunny Sunday afternoon delight.

Air Force Museum - City Sketchers group

Another meetup event with the city sketchers, this time in the Air force museum, the group is getting better and more keen to draw together.  I tried the kraft paper as drawings support and it seems to work. 

New Regent Street - City Sketchers Group

 Sketches done during a meet up event with the City Sketchers group of Christchurch. Another family post with 3 different styles.

Temuka, Timaru and Oamaru - sketches from the edge of the world

Guest Post originally posted on Urban Sketchers by Peter Rush

I often fly to New Zealand for short visits to see my dad, who lives in Temuka on the east coast of the South Island.

All my trips begin with a quick reconnaissance of Christchurch to see how the demolition / reconstruction is going following the terrible earthquake of 2011. I have only brought myself to sketch the devastation on one occasion. That was the Catholic Basilica, which was enough for me. So many long loved buildings are now gone. Maybe once the reconstruction really kicks in, I might start sketching the new streets that will emerge.

The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Christchurch

Temuka is a small town, 150km south of Christchurch with a population of just over 4,000. It has a good main street, though I think the local shops struggle. The larger town of Timaru, population around 31,000, is close by, with the bigger supermarkets and big box retail. Between family time, I either head off to Peel Forest for a bush walk or to the main streets of Temuka and Timaru to sketch.

I really do like these Victorian retail strips. Temuka and Timaru are similar to my local streets in Sydney with their ornate parapets, signs and large awnings. They consist of continuous rows of often small buildings and built in an infinite variation of a similar form. It makes the streets very dynamic and lively. More...

King Street, Temuka

Peter Rush is an architect based in Sydney Australia. To read Peter's full post click Here.

Workshops suburb

 Last weekend was time to drive around Sydenham, a inner suburb of Christchurch where most the workshops and warehouses are located. This area resisted quiet well to the earthquake and for many these are just considered to be some boring streets but for someone that always enjoyed the repetition, the big gates,  bright colours and loud lettering, its more than enough to make it a sketchable subject.

layers of paint

Like Murray, who is chasing heritage buildings, I like to sketch the forgotten constructions among the new and shiny buildings in Christchurch and apply several layers of paint like someone did on the facade,  not that there is much to salvage from this old house, is just a romantic view of a Christchurch that I never knew.    

Steel workshop

Behind this gates there is a welding smell and fumes, there are hammers knocking, there are cranes moving, there are sparks and metal sounds everywhere but not on a saturday, on a saturday there is silence, stillness and me sketching on the outside. 

no title

Sometimes I feel attracted to sketch something without knowing why and this is one of those cases. There was something in the combination of the colours, the different textures or just the loneliness that it transmits. Now that the warm days are almost gone the gouache takes longer to dry, it seems that I will have to find new colour techniques for the winter.

the leftovers

Nowadays in Christchurch, there are new buildings coming out every day and only a few testimonies of the earthquake still standing. The emptiness is major scare in the city. What I am usually after, is the surreal leftovers and the texture of the brick walls to sketch. This material unfortunately will not be part of the new Christchurch look.

Church scars

Following Mr Black´s post, here is my church, one of the many churches that are currently "trapped" by fences, most of them are made out of bricks or stones, which means they were severally  damaged during the earthquake and they are not safe to come closer. I particularly liked this one, it shows scars of a later addition that was now demolished.

Eva

 

Usually she finds something to do while we are sketching. She also draws or if outdoors, she is happy playing treasure hunt in an empty plot, but, as we are not quick sketchers sometimes she gets bored.  She knows we are having fun (just like kids) and she never complains about it, she just puts on her "bored face" and waits for us to notice it.

Then I say "ok, stay still... I will draw you!" and this always cheers her up and gives Mário a bit more time to finish his drawing.

C - ONE ESPRESSO

C-one Espresso is one of the most pleasant bars in Christchurch. On one hand it has this monumental felling inside due to the big columns and the high ceiling but on the other hand, warm colours and controlled light brightness creates a very peculiar cosiness. Of course there is also the pneumatic tubes pumping the food from the kitchen to the tables, Eva loves to stare at the ceiling to watch the food capsules moving around inside the tubes an than dropping nearby, just look for your name on the sticker to find your "curly chips".

Wunder bar

The Wunderbar is a place where I feel good. I like the freak/cosy decoration and the live music but I especially like the view to the Lyttleton harbour. It has an amazing skyline, the big tanks of fuel, the smell of timber on the atmosphere coming from the piles of trunks on the port, the containers going in and out of the ships and nice beers with popcorns on the counter. 

Pomeroy´s brewery

The 27th of February in Portugal is usually a grey winter day but on this side of the world things changed and Liliana´s birthday was suuny and warm so she was delighted. The Pomeroy´s brewery is located 5 minutes walking from our house, there was live music, colourful beers and great snacks, Eva loved the football table.