Green Gates

I've been experimenting with dip pen and colour inks and made my way to RBG. I love these gates and have painted them before, and I'm sure I will return too. I was hoping to spend most of the day at the gardens but the weather started to get very nasty. I think I ended up half soaked underneath the Opera House.

Catching up

Unfortunately, I have had other commitments whenever there has been a Sketchabout this spring. Luckily a friend was having a birthday picnic lunch at the RBG last Sunday, so I grabbed that as an opportunity to do some painting.

I arrived early to a very sunny, colourful day at the gardens. I managed to find the first spot you all sketched at and I was like a kid in a candy store. Which is why I forgot to note all the flowers/plants that I drew. As a birthday present to my friend I let her select a picture. Um, it's the yellowy-orange one... :)

My last sketchabout

Unfortunately I wont be able to make the last sketchabout. However, I hope it wont be the last time I visit the Gardens to draw. It has not only been exciting and full of surprises, but has helped me enormously in the progress of my own work. Thanks to Kerry and everyone involved in Sketchabout.

Twin Ponds

Last week when the weather was dull, I drew the Twin Ponds. Many birds wandered by while I was drawing, but I just captured two ducks and a red-nosed hooter-tooter (dusky moorhen, in actual fact, I think). This week the weather was just beautiful and in the morning I finished off my page with a tall thin palm. Not sure exactly what sort.

Trees in the Gardens courtyards

These trees have been drawn in the courtyards of the Gardens on rainy Saturdays when we sheltered from the rain under the verandahs.

The first drawing is the lower branches of a palm that is in the courtyard of Rathborne Lodge, a beautiful old house where the exhibition of sketches and artists' books will be held, right at the end of the Autumn of Art.

The next one is in the Cunningham courtyard and fascinated a lot of the artists who were sketching there that day. Mine is not accurate as far as the criss-crossing goes. I was teacher, and just doing a quick drawing between going around talking to the participants in the class.

The tree palm is in the courtyard near the Maiden Theatre. I used Fast Sketching Techniques to demonstrate a simple way of

sketching this complex tree. The succulents, of

course, are in the succulent garden, where the class went to sketch this week.

Government House, Sydney

Sketching on a blustery showery day outside Government House, Sydney - still inside the Royal Botanic Gardens. See the tall grasses blowing in the breeze and the yachts on the harbour leaning over.

A beautifully cultivated garden with an amazing variation of colour in the foliage.

Sketchabout 2 Fred Marsh – The birth of splat-ism

After Wendy Shortland's workshop,the first sketch of the day was in the courtyard behind the the Maiden Theatre

Watercolour, pencil, pen.

After lunch I went down into the gardens to get a panoramic view. For many years I worked in Macquarie Street & appreciated how the gardens are such an essential part of our city, by providing an easy access haven for workers to escape at lunch time and rest, read, think, contemplate or just refresh their minds in preparation for the remaining rigors of the day. So I thought that I would find a spot to show the relationship between the garden and the edge of the city at Macquarie Street. I parked my stool under a tree out of the rain and started to sketch, but the raindrops kept finding their way through.

If Turner can strap himself to a mast in a storm to capture a storm on canvas, a few raindrops are a bit of a doddle & were not going to stop me. Nor did they, but many did splat on the drawing and I think that they were a big help in capturing the wetness and grayness of the day – not a normal sight in the Emerald City. I am sure that this day will be looked upon as the founding of the art movement known as splat-ism

Watercolour, restorative gouache, pen, pencil and splats.

Fred Marsh

http://www.marshstudio.com/