Building Investigation 5

Azzy Bolongesey

gouache, micron pens

6"x7"

The Azzy Bolognesey piece was the fifth sustained investigation of a series of 15 and I chose to "investigate" buildings from my childhood in Sydney that held meaning to me. Il Bolognese (ill ball-en-yez-ay), was dubbed, rather affectionately as Azzy Bolognesey by my then 5-year-old sister and it was sort of our family spot so Azzy Bolognesey was what we called it. We went there at least twice a month for the vast majority of the 3 years we lived in Sydney, and it is probably where my love for Italian food came from. It was an extremely local Italian Restaurant and Deli Duplex in our neighborhood in Syndey. We always went there at night and I remember there usually being almost no other customers when we went in, but it was consistently rated one of Sydney's best Italian restaurants when it was open. Rather heartbreakingly I found out while researching this project, that Il Bolognese has since closed and the location is now part of a local chain called "Boronia Kitchen," and they have completely stripped the building of all character and sophistication.

This piece was probably the closest to home feeling building yet, I feel like I grew up in Il Bolognese and our family grew a very good relationship with the head waitress. I distinctly remember the bright neon lights and warm colors of the building really drawing you into the restaurant, and I wanted to capture that contrast between the night sky and the building. I used gouache for the majority of this piece because I thought the layering and blending abilities of gouache would really work well for this idea. I then used micron pens to tighten up some lines.

This project was painstaking and thanks to my brilliant time management skills I was able to fit the creation of this piece in at around 7 o'clock the night before it was due. I quite enjoyed adding in the small details but I'm not very pleased with how the night blends into the building and in the future, I would definitely do that differently.