Sketching at South Brisbane

First sketch was the historical Griffith Film School Building.  This beautiful building started life as a Colonial Post Office and Telegraph building in 1881.

It has had a varied life and has had alterations and refurbishments in 897-1902-2005 when it was converted into the present Film school.

 Ink sketch with my Lamy pen and Noodlers Black ink.

 Watercolour wash

I sat on the footpath between the Lady Celinto Childrens Hospital and the Old South Brisbane Municipal Hall (now the admin building for Sommerville House)  and was looking through the trees at the "Tower of Power" This is an imposing building for sure. It is on the other side of the river.

(oops reflected colour from my orange shirt)

Wilsons Outlook Reserve

For around 160 years Wilsons Outlook has been a gem of a park overlooking Brisbane City.  The views are stunning.  Bowen Terrace was one filled with gorgeous villas, but sadly they have almost all gone. Behind Bowen Terrace on Brunswick the 1889 Brunswick Hotel still stands.

I sketched the iconic Story Bridge first, with a small portion of the iconic Howard Smith Wharves (1930) underneath.  Second sketch was of a historic house, on the corner of Bowen Terrace and Bowen Street.

All sketches done in my Holcroft A4 sketchbook pen and in and watercolour

 

Brisbane River.

Fun morning sketching on the Brisbane River.  I haven't been out sketching for a few weeks and boy am I glad to be back!

Christopher Trotters Biomechanical Pelicans. 1995 

The "Tower of Power"

The outside of the building is now finished.  The building will open to the Government (Premier of Qld) until 2017, when the interior refurbishment is finished.

AUBIGNY PLACE

Aubigny Place is a magnificent old building sitting on Mater Hill.  It is named after the first Mater Hospital, a private house at North Quay, that the Sisters leased.   It took 5 years to have the new hospital built and opened, but it happened on 14 August 1910,  when the new hospital was officially blessed by Cardinal Moran and opened by the Governor, Sir William MacGregor. 

 

 

National Trust House - Brisbane

Historical National Trust House, was constructed in 1865-66 as the colony’s first purpose-built accommodation for immigrants, the building has been converted to offices and laboratories for the Department of Agriculture and re-converted into offices for other government organisations.

The first immigrants directly from overseas to what is now Queensland arrived in the Artemesia on 15 December 1848. As more immigrant vessels followed, the capacity of the city to provide an accommodation base for those who had spent months at sea was sorely stretched. A journalist in 1863 commenting on the temporary three-shed depot being used at South Brisbane noted that, by comparison, ‘the most uncomfortable cell in the Brisbane gaol must appear almost an earthly paradise’.

Plans for a new Immigration Depot, consisting of two, multi-level wings at right angles to each other between William Street and the river were prepared by Charles Tiffin, the colonial architect. The building was constructed in sandstone (for the footings) and brick by contractor John Petrie in 1865-66. The three levels in the rear wing accommodated single women in the upper level, married couples below them and single men in what is today the building’s basement. With space at a premium, luggage was stored in a shed adjacent to Queen’s Wharf.

A4 Holcroft Sketchbook

.08 Unipin pen.

Dragon Races at South Bank

What a fabulous morning I had with friends at South Bank.  The International QUT Dragon Races were on, and it gave us much excitement as well as a unique sketching opportunity.

 The dragon boat in the foreground is the Singapore team, and they came first in the first heat, but I didn't find out what happened after that.

Brisbane Wheel, sponsored by Channel 7 TV Station.

My friend Deirdre and I

 Dragon Boat racing

 Singapore Team

Brisbane Wheel

St Marys Anglican Church - Kangaroo Point Qld

What a fabulous morning it was. It was so foggy one could not see their nose, but by 9.30 it had lifted enough to start sketching.

What a fabulous morning with the Brisbane USkers
St Marys is a Heritage Listed Church. In 1873, the Anglican Church of St Mary the Virgin was built by Alfred Grant at Kangaroo Point to a design by well-known Brisbane ecclesiastical architect RG Suter. It is a Gothic design, constructed from Brisbane porphyry or "tuff", possibly quarried from the Kangaroo Point cliffs immediately behind the church which overlooks the Brisbane River from its hillside position on Main St near River Terrace.
The stone structure replaced an earlier timber church that had been built in 1849. The sturdier material didn't prevent damage from a cyclone that struck Brisbane in 1892 The former shingle roof has now been replaced by the Queensland favourite, galvanised iron.
In 1876, a pipe organ was imported from a church in England, and it remains in the church as the oldest pipe organ in Queensland. Apparently, when Queensland's governors lived at Old Government House, this was the church they frequented.

South Brisbane Cemetery

The South Brisbane Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery.  The cemetery was established in 1866 and remained in active use until the 1960s, after which its use has been limited by lack of space for new graves. By the early 1960s, the cemetery was effectively full and the cemetery was closed. However, as with most closed cemeteries, additional burials and interment of ashes in existing family graves continued to occur. Some additional plots were released in the cemetery in the 1990s. The first person buried in the cemetery was Jane Hockings in July 1870.

 

 My first sketch of the morning was more than a delight.  This Butcher Bird sat on the headstone serenading me the whole time I sketched.

He flew off when I was about to take the photo.  Guess he was shy.

I got to use my Holbein double ended brush today that my friend Lisa gifted to me.

MILTON (Park Road)

My day started badly, when the Citycat I was expecting didn't arrive.  The next one along was an express, so I had to wait 20 minutes for another one.  To top it off, it was high tide, so the "Cats" do a go slow as they can't make a wake near private pontoons.  I was horribly late.

I was so grateful to see my friends sitting in the Coffee Club waiting for me, when I finally arrived.  What an awesome bunch they are..

It was a wet day today,  so a few of us found sitting on the verandah of Milton House and sketching, a good option.

I firstly sketched the back of the historic Cooks Terraces

This is the back view of the Historic Cook Terraces.

Cook Terrace, named after the builder Joseph Cook, who erected the terraces in the 1890s.
Originally home to many of Brisbane's professional residents, the building was used by the armed forces during WWII, and then converted to flats afterwards. For many years they were rather unkempt in appearance, but they had a full makeover in 1984. At that time, the interiors were gutted and the building was converted to offices, with a restaurant at the western end.

Kangaroo Point Cliffs Sketchout

What a super day it was.. Winter and 22 deg Celsius.  It was glorious at the Cliffs cafe.  There is a new manager there, and he came up to me and asked about our group.  He gave us all a free coffee :-) wow eh, there were 10 of us..

A little history of the kangaroo Point Cliffs.

The Kangaroo Point Cliffs were created by convicts mining the volcanic rock or ignimbrite or welded tuff which form the cliffs. Records indicate that it was Captain Patrick Logan who first opened a quarry to supply stone to his building works as early as 1826. Those structures still standing today include the The Old Windmill and the Commissariat Store.. 

My first warmup sketch, is of the Brisbane City Boat harbour.  This is a short term mooring, only 3 months and they have to move on.  It is cheap though, I think it is still only $50.00 per week.

I was attracted to this corner, and the winter trees.  We mostly have evergreen trees here, so it was a delight to see this one..

The "Tower of Power" is almost finished now.  It looks very much like a giant tube of lipstick. ;-D