Luna Park Sydney

Before the craziness of the September school holidays hit, Ethna, Suzi and I made a dash to Luna Park Sydney for some colourful sketching. The park was originally built in the 1930s and although it has gone through various rebuilds it still holds an old day charm. The concept of the front gate face was taken from the Melbourne Luna Park and the old Steeplechase Park of Brooklyn, New York. The current face is based on the 1950s Sydney version.

 

 Luna Park is situated near the North end of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It felt a little surreal on this super windy Spring day to sit with our backs to such landmarks as the Opera House and Bridge in order to paint the garish face.

 

 

I had left my watercolours at home in a hasty departure, so used pastel pencils instead to add colour to my sketches. The second sketch of Coney Island was much faster and easier to do after the detailed front gate. The world's only remaining functional funhouse of its era, Coney Island remains mostly unchanged in concept, games and décor style since being built in 1935.

 

 

 

My biggest annoyance of the day was not using watercolours as this was the first two pages of the Stillman and Birn A4 Beta Series I had decided to break open. So on returning home I bumped up the colours with watercolour... and watercolour pencils.. and white gel pen. The 270 gsm paper held up well to all of  this abuse and it was good to work in this large portrait size.

More pics here on Urban Sketchers Australia