a journey in mark making
It was a bleak Friday when our Plein Air group visited the local historic train station at Waikino, Southern Coromandel. A few chose to sit on the wind-blown station platform while others huddled inside by the fire. The building is not the original one, but was trucked in from up the line at Paeroa years ago. A tourist train now operates from Waihi town to this station. This is a painting of the bullion store located beside the fireplace.
Yesterday six of us sat out in the cool breeze of an autumn morning to paint and draw at the local Beach. It was sunny but not warm. After an hour and a half we retreated to the local coffee shop for a well earned warming drink.
If what they say is true, this view could well be a thing of the past when climate change begins to bite. These homes will be the first to feel the effects of rising sea levels.
This 6″ x 4″ drawing was done with a BIC 0.7mm pencil, a Pitt fibre pen and a bit of graphite. I do see the possibility of a further, larger abstracted painting coming from this at a later stage.
Today our group of artist friends ventured out into the Waterlily Gardens to draw and paint. Here is one of my two pieces – on A5, 110 gsm paper using a black Pitt artist pen, an extra fine .03 Faber Castell ink pen, and light washes from my watercolour pencils. Water from my drink bottle, not the lily pond which we sat beside. This sketch took 40 minutes approx.
This was mid-morning on an overcast and humid day so not many shadows to deal with. And because the sun was not shining, the waterlilys were not showing their faces.
I’m reasonably happy with this result as I generally don’t do realistic landscapes. Perhaps I could work up an impressionistic piece from this, time will tell.