ANZAC DAY 2015,  MLB
Crowds gathered at the Dawn Service in New Plymouth ... we had the opportunity to sketch later in the day

ANZAC Day

Trevor - earlier ANZAC Day

ANZAC Day

Alan's sketch of the Cenotaph on our special ANZAC Day

ANZAC Dawn Ceremony in New Plymouth

The ANZAC Day Dawn Ceremony commemorates the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) World War One dawn landing in Gallipoli. This was the start of a large joint campaign (in what is now Turkey) that lasted the good part of a year. In the end, it was a bit of a stalemate but there are probably tons of stories from the Great War that involved sacrifice without much progress made. Today, ANZAC Day is a day honouring people that played a part in all the wars like a North American Remembrance Day. 2015 was the 100 year anniversary of the ANZAC troops in Gallipoli so it became a big deal in the media. As a result, lots of people assembled at memorials all over Australia and New Zealand. This morning, just before dawn, New Plymouth also had a large turnout and I came away with a night sketch.

ANZAC Day

This ANZAC Day commemorated the centenary of the Gallipoli Landing.  My Grandfather and his two brothers fought at Gallipoli and two came home.

My dad was named after Arthur who landed on 25th April 1915 with the Main Body as a Scout in the Otagos, He died within the first couple of weeks.

Arthur in Cairo

This was his last poignant note home

Today he was remembered in Waikari, North Canterbury

ANZAC Day

A special ANZAC day, the road cordoned off and a steady stream of people coming to the Cenotaph throughout the day to pay their respects

Sketched by Patricia

St Andrews Church, New Plymouth NZ

St Andrews Church, New Plymouth, NZ

St Andrews

Notice the St Andrews cross on the left

St Andrews

Sketched by Patricia

St Andrew's Syndrome

In 2009, St Andrew's was the location of the first ever Taranaki Sketchers sketchcrawl. (This was back when the group was just Scott and Paul!) Due to the misleading and deceptive height of the tower, it was found to be difficult to fit the building to a page without cutting off the top or distorting and shrinking the overall drawing. Since then, if a local sketcher can't fit a subject on a page or squishes the image to contain it, it is said around here that the drawing may be suffering from St Andrew's Syndrome.
I don't believe that I've given the original location a try yet, so when we were invited by the church to draw their home, I was curious to see if I would experience the phenomenon. It turned out that the affliction started to develop! I cured it by constantly turning pages. What you see here is a completed fifth start.
(Fun Fact: That's Maurice and Scott in this sketch, sitting by the traffic lights.)

St Andrew's Presbyterian Church.

It was a bit of an iffy day, but we managed to keep the rain away. We went and sketched St Andrew's Church on Liardet Street in New Plymouth. Not an easy task!

Here is my sketch:

St Andrew's is a traditional English Gothic revival church. The foundation stone was laid by Rev. Professor W.Hewitson on 1 August 1931.The architect was Frederick de Jersey Clere and the builders were Boon Bros. The cost including land,buildings and furnishings was £12,390.
It was opened and dedicated on the 16th of April 1932 by the Rev. Professor W. Hewitson.

The only major alteration has been the modern entrance hall to the north, officially opened in November 1979.

The church is a prominent city landmark on the corner of Courtenay and Liardet Streets. It has been transformed in recent years thanks to a major restoration project.

Reference: http://ketenewplymouth.peoplesnetworknz.info/taranaki_churches/topics/show/970-st-andrews-church-new-plymouth

Halfmoon Bay Stewart Island.

This week I've been in Stewart Island. I took my sketch gear with me, but only managed one sketch! There's just far too much to see. So while we were waiting for the ferry on our last day I sat upstairs in the South Sea Hotel, (an iconic building on the waterfront of Halfmoon Bay), and sketched the wharf and ferry terminal building.

Here is my sketch:

Here are a few photos:

Halfmoon Bay

South Sea Hotel, Halfmoon Bay, Stewart Island.

Pot Pourri

"Rusty Az" playing on the back of a truck at the East End Truck Show

Social Kitchen bike

Social Kitchen game - in window

Drawn with our other sketchers sheltering from the squalls - an ideal dry spot and still get the job done.

Fernery in Pukekura Park

A good place to practice drawing plants of all type is in Pukekura Park's Fernery. Didn't know about the weather last weekend so felt safe inside the glass roof.

Chaos on WOMAD Weekend

New Plymouth was pretty busy on WOMAD weekend. Lots of world music fans from all over came to town to see the festival. In all fairness though, the people of Taranaki love their cooked breakfasts and coffees and this cafe is chaos EVERY weekend.