Pencil on paper

Signed on the back.

I sat in my garden one spring morning this year (2024), here beside Sydney Harbour, and drew this statue of Buddha.

This is the second pencil image I have drawn in this technique that I have been developing. I am brushing the pencils very lightly like a feather over the paper, with lots of fast strokes, and until a sense of lustre and dynamic light play is achieved. This gives the image a soft, serene and luminous quality, as though lit from within. And so this style seems appropriate to honour and represent an enlightened and compassionate being.

The statue was a gift from my neighbours: a young couple originally from Vietnam, and who previously owned a beautiful garden café next door to my place.

When I first moved here in 2023, I spent most of my mornings drawing in their café. This helped me to connect with the community and place after relocating unexpectedly from Canberra.

The couple’s cafe was magical. There was a terraced garden with adjoining pergolas, bedecked with armchairs and rattan sofas, scattered with colourful floral cushions; and surrounded by interesting antiques, wind chimes and tropical pot plants. There was also an enormous goldfish pond in two tiers with a little waterfall running between them, and lots of enormous and tranquil goldfish.

Sitting in this magical space every day felt like taking a morning trip to Hanoi or Saigon

I drew this picture while sitting beneath the palm trees of my own space next door and after the cafe had since closed. It is quiet and peaceful in my backyard, which is framed by camellias and palms, and nestling into a terrace within the steep incline of the Sydney Harbour basin. Here is a very different energy from the usually bustling café next door. However, the Buddha seems to belong in any place, whether busy or still, and always with the feeling and state of serenity. I hope that I can become this nature myself, and this is probably why I draw and enjoy looking at the Buddha. To achieve this same equanimity.

Serenity.

I did feel the presence of peace and a state of serenity while drawing this representation of Buddha.

I chose not to overwork the piece, to contribute to the feeling of surrender and peace that I hope honours the essence of this very spiritual and compassionate human being.

For me, this image also represents the unity in the diversity of our individual human natures. Although we are all completely unique and with our own point of view and perspective and experiences, we are also connected in a field of unity and love.

I hope that this image will bring an aura of serenity and peace to its destined home.