Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Salvage Yard


I used my water-soluble Berol Karisma Graphite Aquarelle pencil for this sketch, with a touch of watercolour. I've had it for years and neglected it, lovely for quick tonal values but I need to get looser with it.


After a long break a small group of sketchers met up at Protector Build salvage yard in Honeydew - which used to be out in the sticks when I first came to Johannesburg, but is now a continuation of housing and industrial estates all along the long road North. We were a bit dismayed at first at the ugliness of our subject, but I soon got absorbed in the shapes and shadows of the piles of tiles and wood  - deconstructed homes presumably to be recycled into other people's houses by the men who were loading stuff into trucks and bakkies. I was really enjoying myself by the time I was on the last sketch - such a typical Joburg scene of dry wintry sun, long grass turned to gold (before the inevitable winter veld fires strike) and dusty road - and we were told they were locking up. I'll be happy to go back sometime to tackle the other piles of debris I didn't get to!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely! It's NOT always about leafy trees and pretty flowers, is it?
Finally,in my last week here, the weather will allow me to sketch outside -almost froze the other day when I met some USK folk up in Derbyshire. But it's all good fun.

Sadami said...

Hi, Cathy,
Very nice! I love your snap shots of our daily life and admire your drawing skills.
Cheers, Sadami

Unknown said...

What a great place to sketch. I really like the bottom sketch

It's too hot here to sketch outside now :( so months of inside sketches from me to come.

Cathy Gatland said...

Hi Dinah - I saw Lynne Chapman's post on USk about the Buxton Sketchcrawl - didn't realise you were the Di she referred to - how terrific to meet up and sketch together! Hope it stays warm for your last week (getting cold here now!)

Thank you Sadami, I feel I haven't been getting out much so this was fun - the admiration is entirely mutual!

Sue, it was an unexpectedly great venue - Dinah too cold and you too hot - you could always come here to cool down and do some outside sketching!

Unknown said...

That's tempting Cathy, may take you up on that... but as you head into spring :)

martinealison said...

Je suis fascinée par vos merveilleuses aquarelles... gros bisous à vous.

Liz Steel said...

Hi Cathy, these are great... what a cool place to sketch. LOVE the last one!

RH Carpenter said...

A very different take on landscapes! I like it - it had to be more challenging than just a pretty bunch of trees :) Anyway, you made it so with your sketches.