One outstanding feature of Buenos Aires architecture is the doors. Of course, the doors on important buildings are very fine, but so are many on ordinary apartment buildings. I’ve always meant to sketch a series of them, and I finally started. Here are the two I did this week.

Yesterday I was going up Ayacucho Street to visit a friend — and quaff some more New Year champagne — and I stopped to sketch this beautiful black wrought iron door. I had noticed it before, so I went prepared with my sketching materials.

It belongs to a restaurant, and the stonework above it is just as beautiful as the door itself.

The second one is a lovely honey coloured wood, also quite popular in buildings made predominantly from cream coloured stone — well, I don’t know if it’s actually stone, but I mean the building material is cream coloured. I sat on the doorstep of the building opposite to do this one, and I asked the concierge what the building was behind the door. He shrugged and said it was just a residence, “nothing special”. Mind you, it must be quite a residence, but anyway I just love the door.

I cheated with the third one, as I actually did it a couple of years ago. Now this is an important building. It belongs to the Argentine Navy. It was a blistering hot day, and I found a cafe kitty corner to the building and sketched it while eating fruit and cheese and drinking a cool glass of white wine!

Finally, on my way home today I saw this performance and couldn’t resist photographing it. Two men on the ground pulling ropes, two more men on a high-up balcony pulling the other end of the ropes, lifting a couch up and over the balcony rail. When they saw me taking the photo, the guys on the top couldn’t help showing off a bit, and I had a moment of panic that they might drop the couch and it would be all my fault. But no, all was well.

Just moving day, Buenos Aires style!