See It, Sketch It.: St. Jo’s @ Penang Gurney Paragon Revisited

17 October 2015

Gurney Paragon in 2012

St. Joseph's in 2012 with construction of main shopping mall still on.

It was 3 ½ years ago on 8 April 2012 that we had our sketchwalk at Gurney Paragon which was partly opened to public then as construction of the main shopping mall was still ongoing. Our presence at the shopping mall piazza area in front of St. Joseph’s alerted the security guards. They were not sure what this group of people was sketching for. They called their superiors, a few guys and ladies came to see us and we explained we were a group of sketchers sketching and painting the St. Jo’s as it has nice architecture feature. After some discussions, they called their Manager and the instruction from the Manager was we had to stop and leave the premises. Reason: they did not allow any drawing of St. Jo’s and other parts of Gurney Paragon (even though it was a public area) as it would deem infringement of copyright, unless we had prior approval from the Management. At that time I was just started putting on some of the colours but was abruptly stopped, and had to pack and go. I was upset with the interruption, I brought the unfinished work home but had lost the desire to complete the painting. It remains taped on my drawing board until today.

We were happy sketching until abruptly stopped by the security personnel.

My half finished painting of St. Jo's which remains taped on the board until today.

After 3 ½ years, PAM (Persatuan Akitek Malaysia) Northen Chapter organized a series of activities this day on 17 October 2015, the World Architecture Day. Part of the program was a sketching session of St. Jo’s with Urban Sketchers Penang. So we revisited St. Jo’s, this time with the assurance that we won’t get kick out half way, but still I had to stop half way after it started drizzling. Luckily I had most of the scene painted and I finished off the painting at home.