Postcard from Melbourne: Farewell gift of a house portrait

At the end of January, it was time say farewell to Melbourne and to record our thanks to our hosts: I presented them with a house portrait.

I promised myself I’d spend some of this holiday sketching, and this is one of the first sketches I completed.

It shows a typical Melbourne property: a bungalow that has been extended upwards, with a modest front garden onto a suburban street, lined with gum trees.

 

There’s no garage?

Who needs a garage? Even if you have a Fiat Spider on the front drive …

Out back, more important to us, and to the grandchildren, there is a pool, an essential component when the temperatures reach 40 degrees in their summer months.

Like most houses in the area, the space at the rear is compact, but well designed with a deck area complete with barbeque.

Plus a poolside area, complete with tropical foliage, where we could laze around.

No lawns to mow!

 

From sketch to finished composition

Having gained approval from our hosts that they would indeed like a painting of their home, I set to.

This is the finished painting. It’s a watercolour. My baggage allowance was insufficient for my acrylic kit!

I took the liberty of losing the magnificent tree that was in full bloom when we left. It housed a flock of colourful but noisy parakeets whose dawn chorus happened hours before dawn each morning.

The front garden (on the left) is given over to raised beds. So, we had fresh strawberries, daily. And courgettes. Rhubarb. More varietes of herbs than you can shake a stick at. All requiring daily watering …

 

Notice the two figures in the window?

That’s gorgeous granddaughter Grace and a friend.

And this is me, packed and ready for the return flight, with Grace. She’ll be almost 10 the next time we see her.

 

Farewell Melbourne. Back to reality!

Back in the UK, we have the central heating on. We’ve swapped the T-shirt and shorts for layer upon layer … and ‘enjoying’  temperatures in single figures.

This post is one of my POSTCARD series, sharing all things ART with you when I go travelling. It’s the final one for this particular trip. My next trip is to Canada, in May. Watch this space!