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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New Zealand Odyssey: Decay and Dereliction, Westland

'New Zealand Odyssey', published in 1989 by Heinemann, was authored by me, Don Donovan (who did the text and illustrations) and Euan Sarginson, who did the photography and design. In this series of blog posts, I will publish some of my drawings.

Euan Sarginson, my late co-author, used to chuckle at my love of ruined buildings. 'Anything that's decaying turns you on,' he once said. True. Why? Because it gives one freedom from straight lines and allows all sorts of little tricks to be performed with pen, brush and pastel. 

The top drawing is of a derelict barn at Karangarua as it was in 1988. It's a salad of shapes and colours; the original hangs on the wall of a good friend in Christchurch.

The other two buildings are also on the West Coast, one near Franz Josef and the other a garden shed in Ross. Rust and Moss (sounds like a lawyers' practice).

  

© DON DONOVAN

donovan @ihug.co.nz

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