Mudgee NSW Sketching Tour

My Mudgee sketching tour also included Ryalstone, Hill End and Sofala. It was a fabulous 4 days/3 nights away in a very beautiful part of NSW. This is the beginning of my sketching tours and they will be (naturally) focused on Australian locations.

Next week I am taking a group to the Northern Territory which will include Litchfield and Kakadu National Parks and Katherine, including a boat trip up Katherine Gorge.

The weather was glorious while away, at least for the first two days, with it much colder of a morning on the last two mornings, with a few clouds around.

Leonie with the tour bus

View at the Blue Mountains

Sketching in the street at Ryalstone

Di Lusso Winery, Mudgee

Some of the group sketching the view at Di Lusso Winery, Mudgee

The Rotunda in Robertson Park, Mudgee

Sketchng the rotunda

The vines and panormatic view at Wirruna Hill Winery

Great Western Store, owner Henry Stuart. another sketching stop

Mudgee clock tower and church

Tours in the Pipeline:

Tasmania

Cairns to Cape Tribulation

Northern Rivers

More country NSW

Sketching in Bali & Borneo May 2019

In May, I was privileged to take a small group of 9 to Borneo, where we sketched the amazing orangutans of Central Kalimantan. As travel was along the river waterways, the klotok boats we travelled in did not accommodate any more.

Prior to flying to Borneo, we spent three days in Jimbaran, Bali, and I ran workshops on how to sketch the orangutans. We also ventured further afield for more sketching and a little exploring. It is a beautiful place with lovely people, and I never tire of visiting. Over the years have taken many groups to very special places on the island to sketch, away from the crowds.

Le Mayeur Museum, in Sanur. This is a place I try to visit when I go to Bali. I love the history of the Museum and the wonderful detail in the buildings.

We flew from Denpasar in Bali to Surabaya in Java, transited there and continued on to Central Kalimatan. Our aim was to visit three orangutan rehabilitation centres in the Tanjung Puting National Park. 

During this tour we not only saw and sketched orangutans, but proboscis monkeys, gibbons and the long tailed macaque monkeys, all unique. In the ecolodge we stayed there were a troop of gibbon monkeys living in the trees. I also saw a giant monitor lizard stealthily moving along on the muddy river environment underneath the walkway I was sketching from.

There were various colourful birds (the Bornean Bristlehead, stork-billed kingfisher and garnet pitta), and green water snakes which could be seen along the river.

This is my forest scene, showing the various birds and animals to be found along the river environment.

Mother and child eating bananas at the rehabilitation centre. The babies stay with the mother until they are about seven year old. There is a very special affectionate bond between them.

This was my cabin along side the river and set into the forest. The gibbon monkeys would occasionally jump on the roofs of the cabins during the night.  

With the logging of the forests these endangered species may only be with us for another ten years.

I have an extensive article on this tour which will be published shortly in Australian Artist Magazine, where I describe the sketching tour in more detail, and with more sketches.

Sketching Central Australia 2017

I am thrilled to be taking an art group sketching to Central Australia in the first week of July 2017. This is somewhere I have always wanted to explore, and to be able to experience the incredibly red earth, the unique flora and to explore the gorges is going to be magic!

Here is some information:

1 - 7 July 2017

Sketching Central Australia with Leonie Norton

Capture some of Australia's most stunning landscapes and natural features on this amazing tour of Namatjira Country. Sketch and paint the majestic gorges, rolling hills and mountains, crisp white gum trees and much much more!  Flights, accommodation and most meals included. Optional balloon flight over the MacDonnell Ranges and a helicopter flight over Glen Helen Gorge.

For more information, brochure and Itinerary:

www.aussieredbacktours.com.au

www.holidaysketching.com.au

New web page for Central Australia in progress

Favourite photos from Cambodia & Vietnam

Looking through my photos on return from my recent Cambodia and Vietnam sketching tour, with a fabulous group - I attempted to choose some of my favourite photos to share with you.

Each day was a wonderful  new experience. Each place held magic of its own.

Hope you enjoy just some of my Favourite Photos.

Cooking in the local markets, just out of Siem Reap

The local food markets were to the locals, like the supermarkets are to us - except their produce was all fresh and not from packets.  No wonder these people appear so healthy, happy and certainly none were overweight.

There was the fresh vegetable section, spices, rice, eggs, ducks, pork, fish and miscellaneous.

This little girl was waiting on the motorcycle while her mother shopped at the markets

From Angkor Wat temple

A Buddhist monk at Angkor Wat temple

Massive tree roots, centuries old at Angkor Thom

Some of my students sketching a village house in Siem Reap

Night markets in Siem Reap

Buddhist monk bestowing a water blessing in Siem Reap

Sleeping Buddha in city temple, Siem Reap

Stilted village, KampongPhluk, Siem Reap. 

Unbelievably in the wet season the water comes right up to the floor level of the houses.

It was so difficult to choose just these few photos from many hundreds, but each one holds a special place....

Cambodia and Vietnam

I have recently returned from an incredible sketching tour of Cambodia and Vietnam. I took a dedicated, inspirational and interesting group - what more could I ask for?  Often it is the wonderful people  you meet or get to know on your holidays that make it that much more special.

The sketchbooks contain personal memories of a special time and for me, and I am sure others, the sketches are far more personal and meaningful than a photo.

I can always visualise exactly where I was when sketching, what the weather was like, who was around me and also aromas.

So I would like to share with you a few of my sketches done on this latest sketching tour.

SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA

Buddha in Preah Prohn Roach, city temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Angkor Wat temple, near Siem Reap

Kompong Phluk stilt village, Siem Reap

When the river rises the water comes up to the houses, the streets are flooded and the children row to school in boats. See below a photo of more stilt houses.

HOI AN, VIETNAM

Hu Hua temple in the old town on Hoi An

The villagers were constantly watering their crops from the wells situated around the vegetable area. This area also boasted a temple, a wonderful cafe, a cooking school and the greenest, healthiest crops I have seen.

Gom Thanh Ha pottery village, Hoi An

The pottery village is a 16th-17th century traditional occupational village. They still use the original potting wheels which are operated by foot, and the original wood fired kilns.

This is a 92 year old woman still making pots. Notice how the wheel is turned by foot. There might be a message here for us in the modern world - on how to stay bright and healthy in later years.

Isn't she wonderful?