Original artwork description:

This is a drawing of some buildings and rooftops near my home in Nangang, Taipei City, Taiwan.
We are very fortunate to be on the ninth floor with no tall buildings directly in front of us obscuring the view(for now!) How long this will continue to be the case is anyone’s guess as new towering apartment buildings are being built all over the city at a fast rate!
When I first moved to Taiwan in 2001 I’ll admit that I wasn’t a huge fan of the buildings and was more inspired by the abundance of beautiful nature on the island. Over time this has changed as I’ve begun to appreciate the incredibly unique styles and colour combinations of many older buildings here. Many older 4-6 floor buildings have added numerous (many illegally built) rooftop extensions made with corrugated sheet metal walls and roofs that create very abstract colour combinations. In some cases outside the big cities there are also large pigeon lofts added onto the top of these extensions taking the buildings higher still.
I find it very interesting and enjoyable drawing these unique structures as I feel they are very Taiwanese and show a visual historical timeline of how life and society have affected the building and its inhabitants. I find this aspect very fascinating and interesting as it gives an insight into how the original structure has evolved and grown over its lifetime.

Materials used:

Oil Pastel on 160gsm Black Paper

Tags: