These are some of the sketches I made during our recent trip to Arnhem Land, at the very top of Australia. The story is too big to tell here, suffice to say it was amazing, memorable and constantly thought-provoking. We travelled with a group of wonderful people, many of whom found me objects to draw! We visited Aboriginal communities in their homelands and were warmly welcomed in each one with smoking ceremonies, bunguls (dancing to a didgeridoo which is called a yidaki here) and lessons in the process of making baskets and spears. We travelled over 13,000km including over some rough dirt roads, in temperatures in the low-mid 30s C but survived and loved it. A trip to remember.
anna warren portfolio 
Such a wonderful record!
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Thanks Ruth – I find the sketches really add to the memories, even better than photos quite often.
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l can’t wait to see your drawings on my computer when I return home from Vancouver Island. Your trip sounds amazing. I have never been that far north in Aus. Lovely that your group brought you objects to sketch. A fantastic output of work.
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It was an amazing trip Vivienne, well worth the long hike to get there! Vancouver island sounds like a wonderful place to be!
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You are such a good drawer, Anna. The way to appreciate each of your pages is to display them one by one in full screen on my desktop.
Even though I know your heart is in your abstracts , these look so effortless and assured that you must feel deeply at home drawing them.
I’m glad you included the photo of you working, and also the maps.
Congratulations on your latest juried-in success.
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Thanks Julie! I do love drawing, and you are right, I do feel at home doing these kind of drawings. I see them as precursors to my abstract drawings, even though there isn’t an obvious link. I can’t see a time when I won’t get joy out of simply recording objects in front of me!
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Your work is evidence of this truth.
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Thanks Julie, I really appreciate that!
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Such a fantastic trip and love the sketches. Funny how these days I’m also thinking what sketching gear will I take with me – that’s the high priority.
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It was a great trip! I have got my supplies down to a core of items – my W&N travel paintbox, a few water brushes, a couple of ‘good’ travel brushes and a selection of waterproof pens. I also took a water based graphite pencil, an HB, when a blacker one would have been more useful. Learn something new every time! Also a small sketchbook that I could carry easily when walking with all my kit in a small bag, that proved very useful.
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Oh these are exquisite
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Thanks Rosie!
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I love seeing all your sketches from this amazing trip! I agree, they are so impactful and through your eyes and hands give such a unique quality to them. I really appreciate seeing the map too, very helpful in understanding the extreme distances you traveled. I’m so happy to read it was a trip of a lifetime and all came together beyond expectations! Thanks for sharing this post, very much enjoyed it!
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I had started to write about the trip in detail then realised how impossible it was to capture everything about it, so many nuances of place and people, so decided to let the drawings tell at least some of the story! I did feel the map was important, so I’m glad it was useful. Thanks Cathe!
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