Leaves From My Sketchbooks. 77. The Guard House, Port Arthur, Tasmania

This astonishing building was a sketcher's dream for its shapes, colour and texture. I used pen, oil pastel and watercolour washes. I suppose it was designed like this in the nineteenth century to put the fear of God and the British rule of law into the hearts and minds of  convicts who, I'm sure, would not have had the strength to storm its ramparts and battlements.

THIS IS THE LAST of the leaves from my sketchbooks. I have published them as a book titled 'En Plein Air' which may be purchased as a hardback, or is FREE as an e-book for downloading to an iPad or tablet. Go to Blurb.com, enter 'En Plein Air' in the search box, locate my book and, I hope, enjoy it!

© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz 

www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz

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Leaves From My Sketchbooks. 76. The Penitentiary, Port Arthur, Tasmania

The remains of Port Arthur's largest building, its notorious penitentiary, do little to bring joy to the artist. This is just for the record. English crime experts of the nineteenth century thought that there was a 'criminal class' there which, if it could be exported in its entirety would leave England crime-free; that's why a zero tolerance regime extended to theft of small items - anything from a sheep to a silk kerchief.

Over 400 prisoners inhabited this brick monstrosity which has been preserved for historical reasons; I'd have blown the place up if it had been up to me but perhaps there's too much left of a rebellious Irishman in my blood!

© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz 
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz
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Leaves From My Sketchbooks. 75. The Asylum, Port Arthur, Tasmania

The bastards who thought up convict settlements and made Port Arthur the worst of them were quite aware that the inhumanities that they meted out to their inmates would drive some mad. So they built this attractive looking asylum. If they'd had the wit to treat the poor fellows decently in the first place they might never have had to have such an institution. Still, it made good grist to my sketching mill...

At the time I did this drawing they had installed a computer database in the building that was compiling lists of convicts and their sins. I looked up 'Donovan'; my God, there were so many of them, my kinsmen from County Cork, transported for stealing loaves or a sheep. How did our tribe survive?

© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz 
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz
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Leaves From My Sketchbooks. 74. The Convicts' Church, Port Arthur, Tasmania

I warmed my bottom on the heat-soaked smoothness of Scorpion Rock to paint this little watercolour and then, later, moved to the flat area on the other side to do the pen sketch. It's a beautiful piece of neo-Gothic no doubt designed to cleanse sinners' souls even though their sins were not forgiven by their fellow men. I couldn't help feeling that it was probable that the stains on the souls of sadistic guards, warders, judges, priests and transporters of the poor fellows were blacker by far!

It's such a peaceful place and yet only a few years ago a madman ran amok with a gun and killed a number of visitors in senseless fury. Odd to think that on another day I might have been one of them...

There is no roof on the church. Was it lead, I wonder? Did somebody pinch it?

© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz 
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz
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Leaves From My Sketchbooks. 65. Houses At Richmond, Tasmania

I was born and brought up near Richmond in England and can say that there's no similarity between the English and Tasmanian towns. I guess the name, as are so many Tasmanian names for towns and rivers, came with homesick immigrants - settlers or convicts.

© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz 
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz
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Leaves From My Sketchbooks. 73. William Smith O'Brien's Cottage, Port Arthur, Tasmania

Port Arthur, Tasmania's most notorious convict settlement, is a dolorous place and the beauty of its setting and astonishing architecture are still not enough to overcome a sense of horror at its history.

William Smith O'Brien was a privileged political prisoner with his own cottage. I'm certain that whoever designed and built it had little idea of how modestly elegant it is. I sketched it quickly in pen and ink first but because it was the brightest structure in the whole, gloomy precinct, I painted it in watercolour, too. That yellow wash is inspired; I wonder whether it has always been that colour?

The final selections from my sketchbooks will follow this one.

© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz 

www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz

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