From Hobart we drove to Strahan on the west coast of Tasmania, which took us nearly five hours. We stopped a couple of times, including in Queenstown which was a booming mining town during the early 1900's. The impact of logging and copper mining in Queenstown was...
We had a really comfy Airbnb in Hobart overlooking the Derwent River. The natural consequence of the view was a big hill, so we timed our outings to walk downhill into town and then at the end of the day we caught an uber back up again! This was the view from our...
We unpacked our bags at the little beachside town of Bicheno on the east coast of Tasmania. It was our anniversary night, so priority was getting hold of dinner - of course! It was too late to sit down in a restaurant that night, but we bought the most delicious...
This week we should have been exhibiting another year of Brunswick Street sketches at the Black Cat. But, alas, due to Melbourne’s coronavirus lockdowns it is now on the back burner 🙁. The Black Cat in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, is a Melbourne icon. It is Cool, with a capital C. It’s retro. It’s quirky. They have a DJ. They support local artists. Like us.
Three years ago today my husband and I were staying at the most fabulous Airbnb - Pete's castle in Galway, Ireland. It's also known as Cahercastle, Craughwell, and according to the Irish Times it is one of the most popular listings in Europe. I'd spotted it many,...
A big portion of my ancestry is Irish, so visiting Ireland for the first time was something I was really looking forward to. From sunny (and often not so sunny) Melbourne it was hard to imagine the accents, the brilliant greens, the castles (yay CASTLES!!) and the...
When Beth googled "magical places in Europe" to visit during our big adventure, I noticed a shift in my thinking. It wasn't just castles that seemed magic, but it was like there was some indefinable sparkle in the air where almost anything seemed special. I suppose...
Six weeks into our European adventure I started my second sketchbook - a huge achievement for me as I have never filled a sketchbook so fast - or at all really, if I am honest! It was a bit tricky getting used to the skinny, wide landscape format of the Clairefontaine...
Ok, so my Strathmore mixed media journal isn't really made of gold, but the metallic paints meandering over the cover and the gold edges inspired by illuminated manuscripts have given it something of a reputation as a golden sketchbook. This was the first sketchbook...
“Castle!” calls my daughter from the back seat as we round the bend in the highway. It is our third day in England and we still can’t believe that castles and medieval churches seem to pop up on the landscape every few minutes, interspersed by Tudor buildings and...
My mum was a very keen genealogist, and long before the internet she spent years researching our family history in person, gathering birth and death certificates, visiting cemeteries, hand searching shipping records and writing letters to potential relatives. It was a...
I figure that I am spiritually about 10% Dutch. I lived in Holland for six of the first ten years of my life, and I have wonderful memories of that time – memories that have been soaking back into my veins and reclaiming my soul since the minute we stepped on a KLM...
Our family is heading off on a two month European adventure to discover castles, fairytale villages and unicorns. I plan to sketch them in a golden journal.
Standing in Swanston Street, Melbourne as the ANZAC Day Parade passed. You couldn’t have anything more symbolic than a lighthorseman – so I painted him.
Not much time for sketching in Paris, so this was my last drawing for the trip. I was flat out with the conference and soaking up everything I could see.