Kangaroo Point Cliffs Cafe

The Brisbane City Sketcher went to the kangaroo Point Cliffs for a sketchout.  The Cliffs Cafe offers amazing views across the river..

 

6" x 9" sketchbook - pen - watercolours

ST JAMES CATHOLIC CHURCH

St James Catholic Church to sketch. Beautiful Church, a place to revisit. The church was built around 1913

 

ANZAC DAY with the Brisbane City Sketchers

Sketching at ANZAC SQUARE Brisbane - ANZAC means Australia and New Zealand Army Corp

 6"×9" sketchbook and unipin pen 0.05 watercolours 

Brisbane City Sketchers in Bardon!

The Barden Water Tower was built in 1927 to supply Paddington with water. It was designed and built by the Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board on Archibald's Hill, some 100 metres above sea level. The tower itself is over 21 metres high, holding 100,000 gallons of water. The water came in from Enoggera Dam and was pumped into the tower by an electric pump driven by the power grid that supplied electricity to Brisbane's trams. This was one of several water towers constructed around this time in such suburbs as Albion, Enoggera and Tarragindi. The Paddington tower is somewhat different in that it has been built on concrete columns, and it may be the only one of its type in Queensland.
The Bardon Water Tower was placed on Listed on the Heritage Register in 2000

Art Spectrum 6" x 9" sketch pad and pen

Sketching South Bank with the Brisbane City Sketchers

The Nepal Peace Pagoda in Brisbane, is located at the transformed Brisbane World Expo '88 site, South Bank Parklands. It is one of the most significant heritage items in Brisbane from the hosting of the Expo. It is the only international exhibit remaining on the site. In 1991 it was moved to its current location, amongst the rainforest near the northern riverbank entrance to the Southbank Parklands

The Peace Pagoda was built by German architect Jochen Reier (APAC) on behalf of the Kingdom of Nepal. Immediately, 80 tonnes of indigenous Nepalese timber were sourced from the Terai jungle forest of Nepal, carted across to the capital Kathmandu where 160 Nepalese families worked for two years at crafting its diverse elements. These were then shipped to Australia in two 40-foot containers and one 20-foot container, where they were assembled at the Expo site by a handful of Australian workers under Nepalese supervision. The final assembly for World Expo '88 only took a few days.

Holcroft A4 Sketchbook Unipin pens .03 and .05
(A4 Holcroft Sketchbook - 125 gsm perfect for pen and watercolour too)

The Grand Arbour at South Bank is 1 km long and it is fully covered with gorgeous purple bougainvillea.  The is fully decorated with pretty red Chinese lanterns right now in readiness for Buddha Birth Day Festival.
6" x 8" pen and watercolour (Art Spectrum Wash Pad)

Broadway Hotel

Fun Morning with the Brisbane City Sketchers sketching the historic Broadway Hotel. 

It was designed by John Hill and son and built 1889-1890 by Whooley and Whyte.  In 2010 a fire torn through the hotel destroying most of the interior, and because it was under insured the owner at the time, a Doctor, walked away.

The building has been sold now, 7 years later and plans are in the making to redevelop it.   Lets hope they retain the original building.

Polo Club Eagle Street Brisbane

This beautiful building was built in 1888 it is the oldest Polo Club in Australia.  The building was built initially in 1864, extended in the late 1870s, but substantially rebuilt in 1889 for the Australian United Steam Navigation Company. It served for almost a century as a shipping office.  In 1988 major external and internal alternations were carried out in converting the building into premises for a club.   In 1914, MacDonald Hamilton & Co became agents for AUSN and instigated internal renovations (c. 1915-20), including silky oak panelling on the first floor. They were also responsible for the change of the name to Naldham House which was the firm's telex address, derived from a subset of their name MacDonald Hamilton.  The building is on the Heritage Register.

If you want to join the Brisbane City Sketchers on a sketchout, look for us on facebook  or message me and I will putt you on our email list

Woolloongabba Fiveways

Great day sketching at the fiveways today, also known as Woolloongabba Village.  The buildings are heritage listed and it is a nice place to be.  Antique shop, coffee shops, even a violin maker.

This wonderful heritage 1928  listed building has been restored and is a Multi-use Space for music performances.  music rehearsal space,  and performance venue. It is wonderful to see these lovely old buildings re-purposed.   The Substation was originally built as a Tram Substation.

Way down that road is the Broadway Hotel.  It was not so hard to see from where I was standing, but what I drew was all I saw of it.

Sketching in Toowoomba

This last weekend, the Brisbane City Sketchers went to Toowoomba for the whole weekend.  My good friend Brett Danvers organised the whole thing and it was a fabulous weekend.

Toowoomba's colonial history traces back to 1816 when English botanist and explorer Allan Cunningham arrived in Australia from Brazil and in June 1827 discovered 4 million acres (16,000 km²) of rich farming and grazing land, which became known as the Darling Downs, bordered on the east by the Great Dividing Range.

The city is full of fabulous historic buildings, gardens everywhere.  The Toowoomba railway station opened in 1867 and the magnificent building still stands.  There are more than 150 public parks and gardens in Toowoomba. 

 SATURDAY

The Toowoomba Japanese Garden is the largest, most complex and traditionally designed Japanese Garden in Australia. It was named Ju Raku En by the designer - roughly translated it means long life and happiness in a public garden.

 

 Christs Church in Margaret Street

It is now Quest Hotel Apartments.

Saturday night was night sketching.  What fun. Four of us settled in on the corner of Ruthven and Margaret Streets and sketched the Gelatisimo cafe

This one is done in Copic markers

SUNDAY

No 5 Godsall Street

Cleveland Lighthouse and Restaurant.

The lighthouse was built in 1864 by the Queensland Government. It lit up Cleveland Point until it was replaced in 1975 by the concrete light. It is a hexagonal wooden lighthouse about 12m (38ft) tall. It is made of painted weatherboards attached to a timber frame.  The light used kerosene until 1934 when it was converted to electricity.

The lighthouse was originally located on the north east tip of Cleveland Point. In  1975, a new concrete light was built and the old lighthouse was moved to the western shore of the point, about 140m south of its original location. In 2009, the concrete light was removed.

In the 1860s, small farming settlements along the south coast of Moreton Bay, including at Cleveland, Victoria Point, Redland Bay and along the Logan and Albert Rivers relied on small ships (coastal steamers) for transport.
Travel by ship could be dangerous as the mudflats and sandbanks in Moreton Bay move and there are rocks. The bay is also very tidal, which meant it gets very shallow, especially close to shore.

Cleveland Point was a dangerous spot. Before the lighthouse was built, people living in Cleveland put up small lights to make sure the ships didn’t run aground. These small lights kept getting damaged, and eventually the Queensland Government decided to build a permanent light.

The Lighthouse Restaurant is a busy place.  We had fish and chips for lunch.  I wasn't overly thrilled with them, they were very dry.

  Pen and ink sketch in my A4 sketchbook

Watercolour added.  We were sketching with our eyes over the bay as a huge storm was forecast.

Luckily for us the storm held off for the two and a half hours we were sketching.  Lunchtime brought the downpour.