Taupo

A few days away in a different location , Taupo - so out with the sketch book., Artline 0.3 drawing  pen and 6B pencil..The black Ford convertible , a classy sports car  of its day was in town and I took a walk to the marina in time to see the Ernest Kemp with a head of steam taking tourists out onto the Lake . MLB

Centre City on a Rainy Afternoon.

Sketching on Saturday was at Centre City. Some of the cast from the "Sister Act" musical comedy were there doing a Nun Run. Sister Act will be on at TSB showplace from 21st July to 6th August. This was an ideal opportunity to practice some more "Sketching People".

Here is my sketch:

 Pencil and Inktense Pencil.

Once I'd finished this sketch I still had about 1/2 an hour until show and tell. What to do next? The sales were on, why not go shopping? No. I stayed the distance and did another sketch, even though it was sorely tempting.

Watercolour.

Nun Run

Today we did some sketching that we don't really want to make a habit of.

The nuns under the fatherly eye of the Bishop were running on treadmills at Centre City - raising money for a Retreat and advertising their upcoming Operatic show - Sister Act.

Nun Run

Nun Run advertising Operatic show coming up - drawn by Patricia

Huatoki Plaza

The Puke Ariki Art Market is really not at Puke Ariki, instead it is under cover of 'The Triffids' at the Huatoki Plaza.  It was a winters day with a watery sun shining.  My mum drew about 8 pages to my one, and gave several away to the stall holders as they wanted to be drawn.

Hockey: India vs The World

Occasionally, we'll go down to the hockey arena if there's an Inline Hockey tournament on. Earlier this year, there was an International Regional Qualifier Tournament. The best of this part of the world were fighting for a spot in the tournament with the big hockey-playing nations. When we first got there, a team from Taipei was playing India and up 8-0. Then noticed that the first digit on the score was dim and it was actually 18-0. The game finished 26-0 and India looked pretty shell-shocked. You might expect a team to let another up for air after a certain number of goals, but not this time. In this competition, if there was a tie it would go to points scored so all the teams were playing pretty hard against India. I just felt awful for them. I later learned that New Zealand beat India 37-0 and Japan went all the way to 42-0. On the good side, at least India didn't have to play anymore games this year.

Shanghai

Looking across the river at Shanghai's Bund. Barges plied up and down.

I met up with Annie Ni, a local sketcher who took me to meet the diligent water colourist group who work from 9am - 2pm each Saturday!  It was drizzling so they were under cover in a park and very hospitable.

In the evening I went across from my hotel to a pub - "The Brew" - and lo and behold the band - Solidaz was made up of Kiwi Hamiltonians - plus a Canadian singer.  They had been playing together for 20 years and live in the Kerry Hotel!  They had a sterling sound and a huge repertoire - playing anything the audience asked for.

Another view inside 'The Brew"

Mr Hong's house.  Annie explained he was #3 in the Nationalist pre-war government after Sun Yat Sen and Chiang Kai Shek.  This was in Puxi an historical cultural area.

Surprisingly a Protestant church - very western inside.  Had been many other things under Communist rule but was now back as a church.  The caretaker volunteers happily showed us around inside after we showed our sketches.