Today’s Shoot it, Sketch it offering is based on a photo I took on my way to LUXcity last year. For one night, Christchurch was illuminated by 16 light installations created by architecture and design students from across New Zealand. The event provided an opportunity to visit a part of the central city that many of us hadn’tseen since the earthquake in February 2011. An hour before the event, the Great Airbrush Artist in the Sky painted a breathtakingly beautiful sunset and stole the show.
City Lights – mixed media, 2013.
City Lights – chalk pastel and tinted charcoal, 210 x 297 mm, 2013.
LUXcity #1 – with the old Design & Arts College in the background – Christchurch, 2012.
LUXcity #2 – Christchurch, 2012.
LUXcity #3 – Christchurch, 2012.
These photographs were taken at Luxcity, an event that brightened up the skies of central Christchurch last October. The event provided a great opportunity to visit a part of the city that many of us hadn’t seen since the earthquake on February 22nd, 2011 (yes, that was two years ago today). For one night, the city was illuminated by 16 light installations created by architecture and design students from all over New Zealand.
Getting these photos was quite a tricky undertaking. My camera couldn’t really cope with the lighting and even if I had remembered to take my tripod (!), I would have struggled to use it because the streets were so crowded. Besides which, it was more about being there than getting the shot of the century.
One of the main reasons I wanted to go to LUXcity was to see my old design school again. A beautiful Art Deco building in the heart of our munted CBD, it has been badly damaged by the quakes and faces an uncertain future. Design & Arts College has now relocated.
LUXcity #4 – Christchurch, 2012.
LUXcity #5 – Christchurch, 2012.
This is me getting a bit arty with some of the shots: capturing the shadow of a bystander in #4 and making a reasonably successful composite of two photos in #5. Thank you, Christchurch, for a brilliant evening.
Windermere, Akaroa – ink and watercolour, 210 x 295 mm, 2013
Windermere, Akaroa – ink on watercolour paper, 2013
Windermere historic house, Rue Lavaud, Akaroa, 2012
I drew a quick sketch of this historic Akaroa house a couple of years ago (see below) and thought it might be fun to revisit it — figuratively and literally. The photo was taken a few months ago with this Shoot it, Sketch it project in mind. Windermere was built as a boarding house in 1877.
Akaroa – sketches, 2010
Can you spot the subtle difference? The house no longer has a chimney (the earthquakes that have rattled the Canterbury region over the last couple of years are probably to blame — an awful lot of chimneys and brick buildings were damaged in 2011).
It’s been two years since the first big earthquake shook Christchurch awake in the middle of the night on September 4th, 2010. Parts of the city are fine (and always have been). Other parts are slowly recovering. Some are still a mess or are now empty — blank canvases waiting for something artistic and wonderful to happen. Or not.
The September earthquake was not the worst (we’ve had a number of more destructive quakes since then) but that’s when it all started. And even though it’s been relatively quiet lately — well, we’ve been here before and we know not to get too comfortable… don’t we?
‘My life is a disaster movie’ (ink on paper) was drawn for a student project about the 2010/2011 earthquakes (previously posted here — about halfway down). The little tornado character represents how confusing and unsettling it is to have the expression ‘solid ground’ removed from your vocabulary.
Various sketchbook entries and illustration ideas for the project.
Finger puppet self-portrait in New Regent Street, Christchurch, 2010. Student project – mixed media, drawing and photography.
A fun, three-day project.
I have always loved the Spanish Mission style architecture of New Regent Street. The pastel green, yellow and blue façades are like the icing on the cake of central Christchurch. The street was opened on 1st April 1932. Happy 80th birthday, New Regent Street.
The street suffered some damage during Canterbury’s recent earthquakes but has survived remarkably well. It is, however, in the city’s no-go Red Zone. There are plans to restore the street and to try and reopen it by Christmas 2012.
Student project to design a cover for a book about the beat poets. We were directed to use found images and a limited colour palette. I used paper collage, deconstructed poetry, an acetone printing technique and watercolour.
Peer interview and editorial – two-page spread.
The original photos used for the illustration.
Student project: peer interview and editorial suitable for IdN magazine. The editorial had to include a particular style of digital illustration, combining photography and watercolour. My classmate, Punch, is a very talented illustrator from Thailand.
EARTHQUAKE February 22nd, 2011
Christchurch hadn’t really stopped shaking for months, ever since September’s 7.1 quake. But this one was different and took us by surprise. Again. It was officially a 6.3 magnitude earthquake and yet it did much more damage: 185 people died and the Canterbury landscape changed forever.
Editorial detail.
Student project: an editorial about my experience of the Christchurch earthquakes. D&A is one of many buildings damaged and imprisoned in the Red Zone cordon and has now been added to the city’s ‘partial demolish’ list.
Anna Cull ~ Art & Music 