Joziburg Rooftops

[By Cathy Gatland in Johannesburg] Joziburg Lane is a refurbishment of an old (well, old for Joburg) section of the city that includes what used to be known as Motortown, where Chrysler, Rolls Royce and other car brands were based before big business moved to the northern suburbs. We’ve been going there quite often to sketch as it has such a variety of subject matter, from 360° views of the city, to many industrial looking nooks, crannies, angles and pipes, to the eclectic mix of people who live, work and make art around there (some of you reading this may have met Fiver Löcker, urban sketcher and artist who has a studio halfway up the car ramp).

I loved the curves, angles and textures of the rooftops from the parking area on the roof, and used the frames of the small rectangular windows to plan and measure my sketch into a Japanese Moleskine – they looked to be the perfect proportions of each page…or close enough. My textures were a bit random, using white wax as a resist, but give a feeling of the corrugated iron and concrete surfaces. Later at home I added flaps to the tops of pages to take some of the buildings up to their proper heights – what would Johannesburg be without the Carlton Centre, once the tallest building in Africa?

The rest are sketches from previous visits -staff from some of the restaurants on a quiet weekday morning, musicians playing at an event down in the food court, a shopkeeper sitting in the sun in a courtyard, waiting for customers – let’s hope they come – in front of a wall mural that those little plants are eventually going to be trained up and around.

Exciting to be able to go to places which have been a mystery to me throughout the many years that I’ve now lived here, in this ever-changing and vibrant city.