Sketching in the Rain
The little local General Store in Newrybar. Soon to be lost to the village with a renovation.
Here we are in Australia at Week 3 in our Watercolour Sketching Courses.
New Zealand is on Week 2.
All our classes from this week here in NSW Australia, had a load of rain. But did that bother us? Not at all. Here’s our thinking.
If you were in say Paris, and you had just one day to see the Eiffel Tower, and it was raining buckets - you’d still go. You’d get that magic moment regardless!!
Let’s take a look at this week. February 16th to 20th. 2021
GOLD COAST. Q’LAND
at Pasture & Co. Currumbin Valley. Q’land
February is known for a lot of heat and a lot of rain in Northern NSW and Queensland. Driving is eventful but we all turn up.
The food at Pasture & Co is cooked early morning by the owner and is French influenced. Our sketchers were unable to resist. A raspberry topped pastry, a yoghurt muffin and then a savoury pastry with salad.
Easy choice for our warmup sketch! Except you must sketch your coffee and cake before eating!!
We began with the coffee or tea cup and added the other 2 or 3 items around. Watercolours this week so we carefully laid all our colours out in the palette and layered one over the other.
BANGALOW. NSW
at Harvest Deli and Gardens, Newrybar, NSW
We wondered if we could hitch a ride on the Ark to class this morning. Talk about rain!
The warm up sketch would be our coffee cup in the foreground and a view beyond looking over the herb and food gardens.
Everyone managed this incredibly well because a little imagination was required here. What to leave out. What to put in.
This a step by step link to this warm up too.
In between showers we avoided puddles along the only street there is to find a verandah to keep dry and find a little old building as a flat perspective.
Well, that dropped right into our hands. Right over the road from the General Store was the Newrybar Community Hall established in 1899. Perfect.
Time was flying so we left these as B/W sketches. Colour can be added later.
KINGSCLIFF. NSW
at House of Gabriel, Tumbulgum, Tweed River NSW
Everyone arrived after a soggy drive to get here, and ordered our fix of coffee to get ourselves focussed.
Another challenge this morning for our sketchers, to sketch their coffee as foreground and add the river view and misty hills beyond. Again, imagination is required.
Watercolour would be our medium so colours were laid out ready.
Every sketch was a delight, some portrait, some landscape, and one had his cat under the table. That’s what makes these so personal.
One quick sketch before we go. The Protea in a wide vase. Sketch fast. Toss the paint and let it be. We had a whole lotta fun.
MOSMAN. NSW
Studio and in the park.
Our beginners' class is bounding along! A few blind sketch warm ups, and focusing on seeing the shapes and how they connect, and the beginner (who would've thought?) sketchers leapt from lemons to trees to a platter of vegetables (figuratively speaking!)
AUCKLAND N.Z.
Studio and in the park
I’ve included the Auckland Week 2 Beginners class because they’re doing similar to some of our Mosman classes this week.
Limes and lemons, with white top and sides, dark down the centre, to get dimension. En plain air in the park and first trees.
See you here again next week. Happy Sketching to all.