Hi and welcome back to the Chrissie Murphy Designs Blog. Today I’d like to share a little about the second piece in my Buildings of the Cassowary Coast Collection. It was a few weeks ago that I finished this artwork. It’s my portrayal of a building I am extremely fond of, the Johnstone Shire Hall located in Innisfail, Queensland.
The right time to photograph
I know this building quite well as I have spent a lot of time in it. But when it comes to featuring buildings in artwork, reference photography is important to me, not just familiarity.
Anyone with an interest in photography can appreciate the value of good lighting. Unfortunately, the first six months of this year have been wet for North Queensland. So finding a day that I could photograph the building in good light was quite a challenge.
One Saturday afternoon in April the clouds parted and I thought, “now is the time!” My husband and I took a super quick drive to Innisfail to photograph the building in good light from a few different vantage points.
You can see in one of the photos below just how strongly this building features in the skyline of Innisfail. It is a prominent building currently visible from so many different places across the town.
The focal point for my composition of the Johnstone Shire Hall
Looking closely at the photograph below, you will notice it is actually from the top left hand side, of the middle, of the front, of the building. I love this little area of architecture. It is full of depth, dimension, great lines and vivid contrasts. This architectural slice of the Johnstone Shire Hall summarises the life of the building so beautifully.
Compositionally I felt it was ideal. I liked the way I could present it on paper, and it provided plenty of space for me to feature some of the internal aspects I’ve come to love as well.
The other elements from inside and outside the Johnstone Shire Hall
I believe the true majesty of this building is inside it. It is magnificent. It’s full of high ceilings, polished timber, art deco themed ornamental plaster work, stained glass timber doors, decoratively tiled floors and wrought iron elements. My composition featured some components from the stained glass doors and the art deco themed ornamental plaster work. Some photographs of these elements are below for you.
I was also drawn to the ornament of the windows located on the upper floors of the building. I liked how differently each half of the window was treated. So I decided to include this in my composition. Windows represent life to me, and this building is full of it. I wanted my composition to reflect this, so windows featured heavily in my artwork.
Drawing of the Johnstone Shire Hall located in Innisfail
I used Strathmore cold pressed watercolour paper (300GSM) for this artwork. It measures 29.7cm x 42cm and was created using a variety of mixed media.
I used Jo Sonya Texture Paste as a base for the sky. And I made the colours more vibrant with an application of watercolour, ink and Prismacolour Coloured Pencils.
For the base colours of the building, I used Sakura Koi Watercolours. These were accentuated with Prismacolor Premier Coloured Pencils, Posca Paint Pens and Copic markers. I performed all of the inking with Signo Uni Ball Gel Pens in varying colours.
Where is my artwork now?
The original drawing of the Johnstone Shire Hall is hanging in my home. It’s hanging in the main living area as you enter our home, and is near the first piece in my Buildings of the Cassowary Coast Collection – Home, the Old Christ the King Catholic Church in Lower Tully.
What’s next in the Buildings of the Cassowary Coast Collection.
Next in the Buildings of the Cassowary Coast collection is another monumental building located in Australia’s Art Deco Capital, Innisfail. Construction on this building started in 1926 and was complete by 1928. While I wasn’t around to see it when it was first constructed, I can only imagine how amazed town folk might have been by its extravagance and beauty.
In my collection, the first two pieces were drawings, but I will be painting the third piece. If you want to, you can follow along and see my progress on this building by subscribing to my newsletter. It’s here where I will be sharing updates as the painting unfolds.
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Until my next blog post, “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received”
Ephesians 4:1.
In peace always
Chrissie xx
What a beautiful artwork Christine, really love it
Thank you very much Paula, i enjoyed working on this piece a lot.