Last week I decided to have a mini break for a couple of days and check out Geelong and also Werribee Open Range Zoo. Geelong is about an hour’s drive from Melbourne and the Zoo is about 40 minutes. I had been wanting to visit the zoo since a concierge at a hotel in Melbourne had recommended it to me. As luck would have it, some beautiful sunny days came my way, so travelling was a delight. The drive wasn’t too onerous and I arrived in Geelong in good time at a nice little studio apartment. Flopping on the chair on the porch outside, I drank some tea and ate a superb cherry ripe slice I had picked up at Clarke’s Pies in Mortlake. Sorry no picture here as it was consumed in a jiffy!

Once revived, I walked down to the Geelong Art Gallery on Little Malop Street. This area is kind of the cultural precinct of Geelong and hosts some trendy places to eat. The current exhibition on show was Cutting Through Time—Cressida Campbell, Margaret Preston, and the Japanese Print. Per the Geelong Art Gallery website, the exhibition examines “the influence of Japanese woodblock prints (ukiyo-e) on the famed contemporary Australian painter and printmaker, Cressida Campbell (born 1960), and on the groundbreaking modernist painter and printmaker, Margaret Preston (1875–1963)”. Quite frankly, this exhibition was excellent. Campbell’s work is compelling, highly detailed and beautifully painted and printed. Both the woodblock (painted matrix) and the print from the block are unique artworks. I loved the large circular artworks of the interior of her home, especially that of Journey around my room. This work had a delightful atmosphere. Gazing at the piece, I could almost feel the soft cosiness of the sofa, the wooden floor underneath my feet and find myself drifting towards the Japanese prints hanging on the wall.

The collection of Japanese prints in the exhibition were equally compelling. The word love is insufficient to express how much I adored the print above Big house, Nice time (c. 1830-42) by Utagawa Kuniyoshi. It seems that even samurais feel the cold and have to wear a coat, covering up their gorgeously patterned clothing in the mean time. Is it the expression of the samurai and the way his fingers clasp his flask or is it the colour blue, the snow and feeling of the cold or is it the brilliant title that gives me such a connection to this work? Whatever the reason, I am in love.

Following this, I walked next door to the Geelong Library to watch a discussion panel being live streamed from the Sydney Writers’ Festival titled Dark Technologies: Exposing the technology of modern warfare, with award-winning journalist Antony Loewenstein, AI expert Toby Walsh and host Michael Richardson. This was a dark topic and a little scary to be honest, but also very interesting to learn more about this and to hear the perspectives voiced. I appreciated that Geelong Library offered this live streaming for free, as I have just found out a ticket to this talk in Sydney was $25.

Definitely in need for a lighter mood and a bit of hopefulness, I walked down to the Geelong waterfront to explore. I quickly discovered the iconic painted bollards along the walking trail. These were the idea of artist Jan Mitchell. Jan painted these together with her assistant John Starr, after they were first sculpted by Pieter Roos. Fascinated why a few of the bollards had rabbits painted at the base, I did some research as to what this meant. I found an article by Audrey Chalmers on the Victoria Uncovered website, who writes that “They represent the introduction of rabbits to Australia on Christmas Day in 1859…. Little did [Thomas Austin] know of the havoc they would wreak on the country’s natural ecosystem”. However, it cannot be denied that the rabbits on the bollards are a fun surprise!

Up the way, I sighted the Geelong Boat House, which the host of my studio accommodation had recommended. I liked the way it looked as the sun set, with the seagulls like little specks perched on the roof. I also found out the next day that it made a good Fisherman’s Basket with a scallop, prawn, crab stick, barramundi, crispy chips and I think a couple of calamari rings. On the way back from the boat I spotted a water rat jumping out of the water onto the rocks.

The next day dawned sunny again, if a bit chilly in the morning. I took to the M1 toward Melbourne to make a visit to Werribee Open Range Zoo. There were a lot of parents with young children queuing in the members line for entry, so obviously this is a popular place for young families to visit. A couple of school groups also entered at about the same time. I took to the Australian trail first, in search of sighting a koala. To my surprise my first encounter was with a medium sized bird, with a black and light green beak, standing on one leg preening itself. Pulling out my sketch book, I did a couple of very quick sketches with my SB Faber-Castell Pitt pen using Clairefontaine A5 250gsm mixed media paper. The pen has recently become my latest favourite for sketching wildlife outdoors, as it inspires a boldness and speed in me that other materials, except oil pastels, don’t have. I asked some of the other visitors what this preening creature was and they didn’t know. I have now found out it is a Cape Barren goose, which is local to southern coastal Australia.

Next were the cute little wallabies, who were having a snooze on the ground at that time, followed by the emus. When me and my siblings were kids, we visited an emu farm in Badgingarra in Western Australia and got up close to the emus and looked at their large eggs, some of which were painted in the visitor shop. At the time, I found them interesting, but emus were a part of local wildlife so at the time emus just seemed the norm. But seeing them again this time, I found them fascinating and unusual. Sitting down on a log in the sun, I sketched the emus for a little while. In the corner of my eye, I could see a little female superb fairy wren flittering around the log, wary of getting too close. The longer I sat, the braver she got. Sneakily I took my camera out and took some photos while not looking at her, to the upshot that one of my photos happened to be of a bit of grass and a tissue! I’ve been trying to get a good photo of superb fairy wrens all year, as they are the most gorgeous little birds. Everybody loves the bright blue colouring of the male and he features in paintings everywhere here.

The dinosaur trail led off from where the emus were. I initially wasn’t going to have a look as I thought I wouldn’t be that interested. And yes, that would have been a mistake!! I loved this section of the zoo, with different species of dinosaurs placed amongst the trees, moving and roaring as I came near. A local zoo officer was standing so still I thought he might have been part of the animatronics as well and said so, but he laughed and said he just hadn’t had his coffee this morning so was a big sluggish. My favourite of all these dinosaurs was the frightening and well known T-Rex. I posted this video on my Instagram but enjoy it so much I am including it here as well.

Leaving the dinosaurs, I walked through the parrot aviary, and then to the koalas, but they too, like the wallabies, were snoozing with their backs to me or hiding behind a stack of gum leaves that they were steadily munching on. Very sadly, koalas are now endangered in Australia due to “habit loss and fragmentation, inappropriate fire regimes, climate change impacts, disease, and feral dogs and cats” per an article by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. I am so thankful for all the organisations around the world who are fighting to protect our wildlife from extinction, including Zoos Victoria, of which Werribee Open Range Zoo is part of. My heart continues to break over all the wars and killing in our world and the subsequent impact on the natural environment due to displacement and loss of habit.

Moving on from the Australian trail, next up was the African trail, where I excitedly anticipated seeing the hippos at hippo beach. Hippos are very territorial and have a reputation for being dangerous and deadly, but you wouldn’t know it from the way they moved slowly on the land and at times stood so still for a long period of time it was like they were statues. I am still amazed at what small ears they have relative to their size. There is a good video on YouTube about the hippos by a zookeeper at Werribee Open Range Zoo if you are interested in seeing them up close. I stood at hippo beach for a while doing some quick sketches of the hippos with my SB pen. I’ve never drawn hippos before so it was a new experience. Recently the mama gave me a hand me down iPad mini and bought me an Adonis mini pen as a gift so I could use the Sketchbook app. I’ve been wanting an iPad for ages so I could draw directly onto the screen, but the new ones, together with the apple pen, while touted by folk to be the only portable tablet that really “works”, are a lot of money and I couldn’t justify the expense. So I am absolutely chuffed at this gift which I have just started to experiment with. The first sketch below is with my SB pen on paper, followed by a sketch I’ve drawn on the iPad mini of one of the hippos at hippo beach.

After hippo beach, I waited a while in queue for the free safari bus tour so I could see the rhinos, ostriches, giraffes and a whole host of other African animals. The bus driver had a great sense of humour and the tour was really informative as well as being great to see these animals in real life. Frank the ostrich delighted everyone by following alongside the bus and teasing the driver with a speed race, which I understand Frank would have won!

On my final day at Geelong, I went to check out the Geelong Botanic Gardens. The Gardens had a number of beautiful walkways and hideaway spots, some interesting vegetable garden ideas and a set of sculptures of cranes and dragon turtles, apparently from Japan in the 1880s. I had never seen a dragon turtle before and have been intrigued since as to the significance of these. I did a bit of quick research and I couldn’t find much on the Japanese dragon turtle except this from the Feng Shui Gallery “In Japanese mythology, the Dragon Turtle is known as "Goryō" or "Goura." It is believed to be a guardian spirit and is often depicted as a divine creature that brings good fortune and protects against evil spirits”. I did however find a very interesting YouTube video by Mythos Safari who had the same question as me except it was regarding the Chinese Dragon Turtle. He has gone to quite a lot of effort to piece together a video explaining what he has found out on the origins of the Chinese Dragon Turtle and the current day perception of this mythical creature. If you are interested I would recommend watching it here.

Geelong & Werribee Open Range Zoo, Victoria

A Little Art Tour, Melbourne, Victoria