It's a pretty special feeling to be included in Stephanie Bower's new book "The World of Urban Sketching". It's filled with lots of artists who I have admired for a long time, so even to be considered at all still blows me away, to be honest. There are over 150 urban...
I was pretty chuffed when I was recently approached by Annika Lundkvist to become one of the Friday feature artists on her website, Pedestrian Space. Obviously I checked out the other artists and they are fabulous, so I feel very honoured to be sitting online amongst...
After many postponements due to Covid lockdowns, the opening of my exhibition at the Black Cat, 252 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, is ON for 4pm on Sunday 4 July 2021. Hooray!! I can feel that glass of cool bubbly in my hands now .... If you are passing by please do drop...
"Did you see the man feeding the pigeons on the roof?" asked a passer by as I sat sketching in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. I looked up from my drawing and sure enough, there they were in the distance - a frenzied flutter of feathers as pigeons lined up for their feast....
I was caring for my dad when I first started drawing Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. It was late 2018. Dad lived in Bourke Street, right near Parliament House, and our family was taking turns supporting him to stay at home during his last months. When my brother dropped in...
Walking down Brunswick Street from Alexandra Parade (still in my 5km limit), I tried to spot signs specific to Melbourne in 2020. Situations we could never have imagined – such as long postponed acts at the Evelyn Hotel, or closed shops with instructions on click and collect. The Black Lives Matter posters on the walls of the fire brigade credit union stayed long enough for me to capture. A few days later they were gone, showing just how important it is to record these moments in history.
As lockdown 2 started to settle, and we were allowed out of our homes, I headed back to the top end of Brunswick Street. I wanted to illustrate the impact of the pandemic on the local community. I sat under a verandah at the corner of Westgarth Street and drew locals chatting on a mosaic chair wearing masks. Some things don’t change though. The building housed a butcher’s shop back in 1925 and it still does today.
When coronavirus arrived we all bunkered down at home. When we briefly emerged in June our little group decided to play it safe and stay away from crowds. So we moved north, and crossed the great divide of Alexandra Parade. I drew quickly, worried about another lockdown – and of course it happened. The first stop on my way out was at polyester records – closed, but within my 5 km boundary.
There is no end to eateries in Brunswick Street, but not many of them have an open fireplace like the Fitz to tempt cold sketchers on a rainy Melbourne morning. Opposite was, at one stage (sadly now gone) Attaboy Roy. It took us a while to realise we were drawing “Fitz – Roy”. The building that housed Brown and Scott’s Drapery in 1905 is now Polly Bar.
Spin around the corner of Johnston and Brunswick Street and you’ll see something completely different to draw in every direction. Change your view in a rooftop bar, and the world shifts again. That impossibly bendy IOOF building just never seems to make any sense, whatever the angle, but it and the old post office are still the landmarks they were in 1911.