Perth city skyline

Out with the Urban Sketchers Perth recently to draw our city. View from Fraser Avenue in Kings Park overlooking the CBD. Lots of construction work around Elizabeth Quay.

Fremantle Traffic Bridge

The wooden Fremantle Traffic bridge (opened 15th December 1939) is due to be demolished and replaced by a new structure in the next few years… Each of the main wooden pillars is hand carved with numbers (in roman numerals), the criss-cross of West Australian timber bolted together is quite unique, it would be a shame to lose such an iconic structure – should be kept as a bike/pedestrian bridge!

Sketched in ink before colour…

Kennedy Range (Mundatharrda)

View from the top of Temple Gorge Escarpment in the Kennedy Range (Mundatharrda in the local language group), looking out across the wide gently rolling plains of the Lyons River. Several scrambles up the gorges, rock pools with water according to the season. The colours of the rock vary from yellow ochre to deep iron oxide red, iron blue and white quartz. Ancient rock “bubbles” scattered around – stratified in different shades when the molten rock cooled about 300 million years ago. The cool gorges attract various wildlife, sit still beside a rock pool for a while and the local birds become brave enough to come close to drink.

Cottesloe Groyne

A big swell but little breeze yesterday…sitting sketching on Cottesloe Groyne

City Beach Winter Sunset

The “golden hour” glow of winter sun at City Beach Perth yesterday, the sun officially set at 5.19pm. This sketch took around half an hour drawing and painting in my new (first page) “Seawhite of Brighton” sketchbook bought in Winchester in the UK during a pre-covid holiday. It seems very good paper, bright white with a “Not” finish gives enough texture to get the dry-brush effect that I wanted for the white water waves, the 200gsm thickness didn’t buckle or warp.

Waterbrush and 6 colours…Hansa yellow medium, Yellow ochre, Transparent pyrrol orange, Quinacridone lilac, Indanthrone blue, Phthalocyanine blue (green shade). I’m finding that I can mix almost any colour I need with just these 6 colours, this is my variation on Jane Blundell’s recommendations for limited palette. Check out Jane’s blog for ideas of a limited palette below…

https://janeblundellart.blogspot.com/2014/08/colour-exploration-4-bright-non.html

https://www.janeblundellart.com/sketchbook-pages.html

Perth Zoo

A spontaneous day trip to Perth Zoo yesterday, a lovely warm and sunny late autumn day was a great time to visit the zoo to sketch the animals. I spent about 4 1/2 hours wandering around sketching at random (it costs $33 to get in so had to make the most of time).

Freo Giraffe

One Freo giraffe feeding….(one Fremantle crane loading/unloading)…on a sunny morning last week

Yenyening Lakes

Yenyening Lakes, Western Australia…and nearby

80 Guthrie Street, Osborne Park

One of the last houses in Osborne Park, Number 80 Guthrie Street. Most of the area is retail/industrial and the original homes have been demolished for new businesses. This place looked rather neglected with broken windows and piles of rubbish in the front yard…probably won’t be around for too much longer…

Point Peron

Point Peron, about 45 minutes drive south of Perth, a picturesque peninsula along the coast, lots o rocky little islands a reefs up and down the coast, looks to be a great place for a snorkel