The path to PukeAriki

I sat in the shade on the path up to PukeAriki looking down on the art market, just outside the Library.

Out and About near Puke Ariki.

This week we had a guest sketcher with us, Lim Su Min from the Urban Sketchers Singapore group.
Here is a picture of us all:

Liz, Su Min, Scott, Brian (hidden), Coreen, Jackie.

Here is Su Min's sketch:

I chose two locations, the first at the Art Market in front of the Puke Ariki Public Library. The area in front of the libaray is in the process of being revamped and is almost finished. It was hosting the Art Market for the weekend. A good spot to sit and sketch, but very hot in the sun. My paints were almost drying before I got them onto the paper!

Next I did a quick pencil sketch sitting in the shade outside Puke Ariki Museum.

Puke Ariki Nikau Palms.

Bikes by the Landing Cafe

The two guys in leathers approached me half way through this sketch.  They kindly walked around the block again to let me finish.  A gorgeous day for sketching (and biking), one was from Auckland and the other Masterton.  The renovated area in front of the libary is well patronised.  We'd sketched the diggers here earlier during construction.

I had 20 min left for a quickie sketch of the cafe after the bikes departed.  Today we welcomed visiting Urban Sketcher Su Min from Singapore to join us, which made the sketching world feel smaller.

Walking into Estella on the Camino de Santiago in Spain.  A month long walk over mostly rural Northern Spain following the ancient Pilgrims Route from the Pyrennees to Santiago Compestella on the coast.

Another section of Te Araroa - The Long Pathway - completed. New Zealand's official walkway from North Cape to the Bluff.

Follwing the Waikato River.

New Brunswick - Virtual Paintouts subject for November.

Puka Tree in the Rain.

Today some of the group were away or couldn't come, plus it was a very wet day. So the task was sketch wherever you are, whatever you are doing and then post to the blog.

This is my "Puka Tree in the Rain" as I looked out my conservatory window.

Wednesday Art Group

A painting for Real TART's Christmas Exhibition.

The theme is:

"That Holiday Feeling"

Here is the original sketch:

And the painting:

Long Lazy Days.

Bruce's Dairy

Bruce's Dairy - A corner store that is on a corner and beside a roundabout. This seems like a pretty good location to me. It had a steady flow of traffic but I didn't draw any cars today since there weren't any that stayed long enough.
While I drew this building, I witnessed the death of a car. It looked like it had overheated. I could hear the mobile serviceman informing the owners that it would take more to fix the car than they had originally paid for it. I watched them all leave soon after. The owners came back with a rental car and loaded all of their belongings into it. After they drove away, a tilt-bed truck later came for the body. It reminded me of the time that my car died. It was in the middle of nowhere and that was reasonably difficult to sort out. Now this car, coming to a stop here (or just to the left of my sketch actually) is in town and right across the street from a place that sells pretty much everything.

Old Barrett Street Hospital Gates.

In less than forty years these gates have gone from representing.

HOPE - CARE - and  LIFE
              to
POLITICS - BUREAUCRACY - and  GREED.

Barrett Street Hospital Gates, Dawson Street, New Plymouth.

Today we sat on the footpath and sketched the old Barrett Street Hospital Gates. They are old and broken, padlocked with a

                                                                WARNING
                                                     Tresspasers will be prosecuted

sign, and have grass and weeds growing around them.

I found them a challenge to sketch and capture their age and dilapidation. Once they must have stood proud.

Here is my sketch:

Old Barrett St Hospital Gates

A shadow of its former self, these ornate gates, were rusting. 

An unwelcoming sign, padlocks and weeds greet the passer by.

Devon Street in New Plymouth

Here is some more downtown sketching in New Plymouth done about two weeks apart. Devon Street would be the main retail shopping street and this intersection at Currie Street is, in a way, the centre of town. This divides Devon Street East and Devon Street West and the address numbering increases in both directions, starting from this corner. The centre of town!



This next one took about a week of lunches to finish. A nice shady spot on Devon Street West about three or four buildings down the street from the other drawing's point of view. You might be able to figure out which building this is in the other drawing too. (Hint: The tallest one.)

Puke Ariki

People visiting an exhibition at Puke Ariki museum in New Plymouth.

Shadowing Venus

Shadowing Venus: Pacific Adventures of Joseph Banks.
Main Exhibition Gallery, PukeAriki.
7 July - 11 November 2012.

Sketched 3 November 2012

Rhodo Festival Cars

Midst Ian and Elsie Lind's extensive nikau pathed garden, is Ian's 'shed'.  Four gleaming vehicles, not to mention a gleaming floor, complete with juke box and pump.

Here are just two:

1950 Ford F1 pickup

1934 Buick Convertible Coupe

Shadowing Venus: Pacific Adventures of Joseph Banks.

Today we went and had a look at this exhibition at Puke Ariki.
Aboard the Endeavor with Captain James Cook were Joseph Banks, scientist Daniel Solander and artist Sydney Parkinson.
The exhbition includes 46 framed prints from the Florilegium, plus four actual specimens of pressed flowers and leaves collected by Joseph Banks and fellow botanists on the HMS Endeavor in the late 1700's.

Banks' Florilegium Volume: XXII
Plate No: 452
Current Binolmial: Fushia excorticata
Banks/Solander: Agapanthus calcyfloris
Common Name: Native Fuschia
Maori Name: Kotukutuku/Konini

Here is my Sketch: