Shangri-La Sketch your Cake

October 29, 2013 by Erin Hill Sketching

  It’s amazing with today’s weather that we all turn up in one piece! Gale force winds and thunder at the very moment each of us is attempting to get to our bi-monthly Sketch your Cake event. But sketchers are very hardy folk. Here we are at the glorious Hotel Shangri-La, smiling and full of anticipation for what is ahead. Kevin our table attendant is there in a blink to take our tea and coffee orders. My car is being […]

Categories: Art, Art to Eat, Food Sketching, Sketch & High Tea, Sketching Chocolat • Tags: Cake, Chocolate, Food, Hotel Shangri-La, Sketch

Cakes Glorious Cakes

May 1, 2013 by Erin Hill Sketching

What beautiful 3 tiered cake display stands arrived at our table for our Sketch your Cake High Tea. Here we are at Boronia House, gazing at the table which would be ours, and the colours of the old-fashioned style tea cups, each a different colour. Then the gerberas in small glass jars caught our eye. All side lit as the sun came in through the tall window with a perfect tree outside. Maybe it’s a painting we are about to […]

Categories: Art, Creative food, Food Sketching, Sketch & High Tea, Sketching Flowers, Watercolour Pencils • Tags: Art as food, Baking and Confections, Cake, Chocolate, Composition & Colour, Cooking, Food, Sketches, Travel Sketching

An Everlasting Weekend

March 31, 2013 by Erin Hill Sketching

It’s all a bit confusing having Easter in late March. Usually I know exactly what day it is when I wake. Now each of the 4 days feels like Saturday, or is it Sunday? Not that I don’t enjoy having some spare days to think about the world a little. Cos I do. No clock watching. Just do as you wish and if it’s not finished there’s still tomorrow. Easter is a religious celebration, and that for many is a […]

Categories: Art, Art to Eat, Food Sketching, Manly Beach, Sketching, Sketching Chocolat, Waterscapes • Tags: Chocolate, Easter, Easter Moon, Easter Sketch, Holiday

L’art Sauvera le Monde

February 12, 2013 by Erin Hill Sketching

That is what it said inside the wrapper of our papillotte. Art will save the world. Quote Platon. Who’d have thought you’d find such a truth inside a shiny chocolate wrapper. Here we were at the first of our 5 week SKETCH & FRENCH classes in the Studio with Adeline and myself. Set up on the table is our gardenia still life surrounded by a tempting scattering of wrapped chocolate. Not to be tasted yet! After a tea or coffee […]

Categories: Art, Sketch & French Classes, Sketching Cafes, Sketching Chocolat, Sketching Flowers, Traveling & Sketching • Tags: Adeline, Chocolate, Christmas, Confectionery, French Conversation & Sketching, Lyon, Papillotte

The Door Bell chimes. Who could it be?

February 5, 2013 by Erin Hill Sketching

  Is it a lost stranger? Is it a Jehovah’s Witness? An axe murderer? No no, it’s Adeline. There she stands smiling, with 3 slices of Tarte au Chocolat on a plate and they are for me! This is made by an expert French cook called Marie. Her Chocolate Tart is to die for, and here we are being lucky enough to try it. There looks to be a layer of sour cherry with rich dark chocolate, in a pastry […]

Categories: Art, Art to Eat, Food Sketches, Food Sketching, Sketching Chocolat • Tags: Art as food, Chocolate, Chocolate Tart, Food, Line drawing with Watercolour, Pastry, Sketches

Little Treats on a Wet Day

June 10, 2012 by Erin Hill Sketching

I’m doing some cake sketches at the moment. We were out walking the dog on a very sunny Saturday and I decided to drop into Adriano Zumbo’s Manly hideaway and choose a couple of exquisite little cakes so that I could take them home and sketch them. Adriano has an enormous following here in Sydney. The cakes and macarons he makes are indeed a work of art. Not only that though, they taste wonderful. Sometimes something that looks so beautiful […]

Categories: Art, Art to Eat, Creative food, Food Sketches, Line & Watercolour • Tags: Amélie, Art as food, Cake, Chocolate, Line drawing with Watercolour, Macaron, Sydney

Chocolate as Art

December 21, 2010 by Erin Hill Sketching

    Today was a wonderful day. Two important things happened. 1•  Joanna & Olivier arrived all the way from snowy Paris.    2•  They brought chocolate. You could be forgiven for thinking that we in the colonies don’t get chocolate. We do but not quite the fine choice that came today. Joanna had been in Brussels on a ‘girls weekend’  and buzzed around some of the best chocolatiers there are. Of course her every thought was to bring a […]

Categories: Art to Eat, Drawings & Sketches, Line & Watercolour, Quick Sketches, Special Occasions, The little things in Life • Tags: Brussels, Chocolate, Line drawing with Watercolour, Switzerland