Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
The current school holiday's found me at Ohakune for 2 days with a bunch of kids desperate for their first proper ski experience. Of course I was secretly hoping the mountain would be closed so I could visit Smash Palace at Horopito.
I've probably wanted to visit since watching Steve Millen driving the Smash Palace race scenes in a Formula Pacific Ralt RT1 at Bay Park in 1981 (I had to check that, I thought it was David Oxton). Well I sort of got the best of both worlds with an hour sketching outside Smash Palace from the safety of a warm car (freezing outside), and a day of skiing once the mountain opened (happy kids = happy sketcher).
Looking forward to next time when I actually have time to go inside the place! The sketches are, top, a snow covered Mk I Jaguar, and a Rover P4 Cyclops, Austin Sheerline and Humber Snipe at the bottom.
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