Sketchbook: concertina Plantana

As the days slowly evaporate I'm trying to make sure I have some record of my surroundings. A grey drizzly afternoon left me sat under the an awning in the garden sketching my home.

Plantana - we're are mostly obscured by the palm tree in this view, but I focussed on our block, we're the second floor and have the most divine view of Seven Mile Beach every day. I added Plantana's logo as I'm rather fond of it.

Hidden lounger - waiting for the rain to pass, I spied this reclusive lounger almost totally hidden by foliage.

I'm really partial to the chunky and simple furniture at Plantana, so lovely to draw, lots of clean lines too.

Sketchbook: concertina flowers

Two more pages from the concertina sketchbook, these pictures have come out a little yellow, the  Plantana planter is still a little wet in the pic too so the colours haven't fully shown. Both are acrylic and ink. The 'Table Flowers' image was inspired by Roland Richardson, an island painter from St. Martins whose amazing love of colour inspired me to get the paint out.

Sketchbook: concertina Plantana

 

More pages are starting to fill up in the concertina sketchbook, here are a few of my watercolour efforts around our condo, Plantana. I'm enjoying the 'wonkiness' of the furniture in these watercolour sketches.

Sketchbook: concertina beaches

Look at my amazing new sketchbook! It's a concertina design which looks like a regular sketchbook from the outside but stretches out accordion-style. I can't believe I haven't used it until now, I brought it out with me and test drove it last night at Barker's Beach while PT windsurfed.

Barker's Beach 1: towards Rum Point - pen and watercolour

Barker's blues 1 & 2 - watercolour, sand and pen

 

PT is lost / Barker's towards West Bay - watercolour and pen

 

In the above image, as you can tell from the title, PT got lost, the wind zoomed him up and away towards West Bay, he eventually abandoned his windsurf on the beach and we had to retrieve it with the jeep about half a mile further up the beach!

My sketches below, show PT battling the wind and the choppy waves until he disappeared from view, note the sketches which became a mere triangle, line and a dot (top of image), this was all I could make out of PT and his windsurf on the far horizon.

Sketchbook: Barker's Beach

After a weekend on the deserted beaches of Barker's National Park, deserted bar the pony treks of course, here's a sketch of PT (thankfully) returning to the shore after zipping away on a very choppy sea and gusty breeze.

We're both sandblasted, salt-licked and in need of some shade now.

The horseman appeared from under the sea-grape trees in the far left, so they were a swift addition to the image.

Sketchbook: waiting rooms

I have spent seemingly endless hours in waiting rooms while I've been on this island; long, tedious hours in dull, tedious rooms. I decided to start keeping some notes and sketches, goodness knows I had the time to make them. I tried to see the charm and simplicity in a mass produced chair in a nondescript room. Here are two such examples.

Sketchbook: Smith's Cove

After a lovely chilled out birthday day, Jem and I spent the afternoon at Smith's cove, sketching the jumpers. Smith's Cove is a public beach and is most often used as the backdrop for beach weddings and snorkelers, since it has a reef just metres from the beach.

Painting: Miss Charlene

Here's a painting of a lady I met at CTA (Cayman Traditional Arts), she is a thatch and weave demonstrator, here she is, in Nurse Leila's garden, West Bay.

Mixed media on paper

sketchbook: urchin

Inspired by my near spiking from a black sea urchin this morning, I collected up some sea urchin shells for sketching this afternoon. They're incredibly delicate under all those spikes, see photos on Flickr.

Sketchbook: beach people 2

More people watching on Seven Mile Beach.

Sketchbook: conch revisited

You'll notice that I took my previous sketch, conch, from Cayman Ladies' Art Society (CLAS, we have an acronym, now we need a logo) and decided to experiment with some painting. 

Apologies for the same composition, but this exercise was more about playing with different media. I really need to learn when to stop, as I'll naturally keep plying on the layers, but I enjoyed it all the same.

More pics of the individuals paintings on Flickr.

Sketchbook: conch

Having met on Saturday morning for the inaugural Cayman Ladies' Art Society meeting I present the fruit of my first week's labours. It's a modern and bright change of pace for me, but I'm enjoying the hot pink on turquoise. (The second image is as art directed by PT, the traditionalist, who frankly hates the bright version.) What do you think?

Cayman Ladies' Art Society is an excuse to meet, eat, drink, gossip and draw, we currently comprise of three art and cake enthusiasts, an Australian,  a South African and a Brit. I hosted the event this week, so with a cloudy seven mile beach as our backdrop we diligently set about sketching, rendering and painting (and eating and drinking).

We have our first Society outing this week, which pleasantly coincides with my first piece of curating. I'm assistant curator to 'Beloved Isle Cayman', the latest art exhibition at the Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman. Who knows, maybe the Cayman Ladies' Art Society will feature in the next exhibition?!

Here's the flyer for this Wednesday's event, which I also designed, I'm looking forward to meeting the artists and seeing their vivid island inspired work in person.

Sketchbook: catboats

In a bid to conduct more island research and help with my potential new job, I've been learning about catboats and particularly those painted in Caymanian blue.

Sketchbook: beach people

Quick doodles of passers by on Seven Mile Beach.

Sketchbook: beached

Greetings from the island.

It's an overcast and choppy sea scene today, we had some early morning 'sun' bathing, during which I had to admire these holiday makers for their resilience, remarkably they weren't English but were bathing under grey clouds all the same.

We sampled a long and delicious lunch at an all-you-can-eat Brazilian BBQ for a birthday celebration, before moving onto cocktails at The Royal Palms. Not a bad way to spend your Saturday.

Sketchbook: all at sea

While sketching by the pool, I looked up and saw this pirate ship sail by. How surreal, when did that become a normal occurrence?! It certainly made me do a double take and scribble it down into my composition.

Now walk the plank and jump in to the pool me hearties. Arrrrrrrr.

Sketchbook: Sunset at Plantana

I tried to capture the hazy colouring of sunset, as quickly as possible. I sketched this scene from the balcony as the sunset, scanned in the image and added the colouring on my computer while watching the lights and colours switch and swoop in front of me. It's a quick effort and by the end I was sat in near blackness but I enjoy working to a time restraint (not to mention the light restraint).

Sketchbook: Island flora

On my frequent wanders around 7MB (Seven Mile Beach), I keep noticing these architectural plants. They're between 4 and 8 feet tall and essentially look like great asparagus spears with bendy branches coming from them. I'm presuming these are in different states of flower, or they could be different varieties altogether.

Either way I think they make great shapes and I wanted to share my sketches of them. Any horticulturalists recognise them?

Sketchbook: Esc The City

It's National Heroes Day on the island today, so with every shop closed I had no choice but to sunbathe, sketch and cook - not a bad way to start the week. It's a good feeling to be dedicating time to drawing again, I intend to get back into my painting this week too. Here's a sketch from earlier today, entitled Esc The City, because I got in touch with Rob and Dom from Esc The City today, since I've inadvertently become part of their cause.

They encourage people to pursue a change in direction, make the leap to be more than a city worker statistic, they're really kind of special and I'm a huge fan of their philosophy. Also their Monday morning  emails are very inspiring, so why not sign up for more information? Their website is a few days away from their big launch event so it's not fully operational, but do drop in.

Same sea, different view

First sketch from the beach behind our condo, I'm sure at some point reality will hit but it's not right now!