Christchurch Earthquake Drawings

It wasn’t until 2010 that I began drawing. It was after the earthquakes in Christchurch New Zealand, and there was so much destruction everywhere. Christchurch is an old town in New Zealand terms and had some beautiful turn of the century buildings. These buildings that were not made to withstand a large 7.2 richter scale earthquake.

We had a huge number of earthquakes over the following three or four years, something like 4000. I think there’s a common misconception that you have one earthquake that does the damage and then its over. Well it doesn’t work like that, the major earthquakes can be followed by other large events and thousands of smaller events – that’s what Christchurch sustained- colossal amounts of damage. As I wandered through the City I was fascinated by the destruction and wanted to record the damage in ink. Here are a few of those images.

I like to use Indian ink applied with a very fine paint brush. This is an image of the Christchurch Arts Center with its once’s erect spire, sitting on the road outside the entrance of the building. Hopefully you can make out the scaffolding surrounding the building. It was a hub for arts, crafts and entertainment in Christchurch prior to the earthquakes. It was a devastating loss to the community after the damage and not least because it was one of the historic places of interest in Christchurch.

So my drawing of Christchurch buildings during this phase portray a historically important moment in Christchurch’s history.

Happy-arting!