Americarna 2020 - More Bel Airs

At this year's Americarna, I ignored the new cars and went with a classic car to sketch. This is a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air. A great car in a design variant before they started to get very ugly in the 60's and 70's. I also did this one standing up so it gives it a slightly different angle than usual. There is another quick drawing from a couple days before when they stopped in Waitara. I've never gone out to see the cars when they stop at the smaller towns. I'm not sure if each of the small stops get ALL the cars, there were still tons and it's quite a nice vibe to see Americarna outside New Plymouth.

Day trip into the eastern Taranaki farmland

 A trip into the farming area of Tarata and Purangi , inland  between Waitara and Inglewood , Taranaki NZ. This follows the Waitara river and included large stands of native bush , river flats and hill country. I came across a muster of sheep, the farmer slowed the droving to allow time for photos and quick roadside sketches. He was wondering what I was doing this far from town in my MX5 sportscar !  .  The old shed was dark with green covering the original red-shed paint work. Still looked great.  MLB

Waitara Whitebait

Whitebait fishing means lots of big nets and tiny fish. It sounds like cheating if you say it that way.

Walking and Sketching.

Sketching and Walking.
The plan is:
1. Go for a long walk each week, (weather dependent), and stop for a quick sketch along the way.
2. Don't spend much more than 30 minutes doing the sketch.
3. Try not to do too much touching up at home, finish the whole thing while out.

So here's today's effort. A 35 minute sketch of the view at the end of Joll Street.

This is the result after a little touching up at home.

 The result after 35 minutes of sketching on site.

Mount Taranaki with Lake Ngangana, Joll Street, Waitara in the foreground.

Walking and Sketching.

I decided today, (because it was such a nice day), that if I'm going out walking and the weather is good enough, I should carry my sketch gear on my back! That is what I did today. I walked 7.8km and stopped for a quick sketch of the Waitara River-mouth on the way.

Here is my sketch:

That was time well spent, plus I saw plenty of future sketching spots along the way.

Out-of-Towner's

The local government is using a few of my drawings to promote interest in a plan for the future of the region. One thing that was said was that I should get out of New Plymouth more and get the neighbouring towns. So I did a sketch of Inglewood and Waitara and they are being used too. I figure I could still do a few more in each place as well.

Waitara Kids

Here's a group of kids in the town of Waitara at the end of summer. They came over and kept turning the pages, wanting to see my previous sketches. Then everyone wanted to pose on the large rock except I'd already drawn that bit. One of them soon had the idea to pretend to climb up the fire escape on the building. After almost 10 minutes of uninterrupted drawing, the mob was back to have a look. Everyone liked seeing themselves in the drawing except Mya, who was on the ladder and half hidden. She convinced me to put her in again, beside the tree in the background.

At the edge of urban - Part 2

This is a sketch of some people at the Taranaki Poultry and Pigeon Club Annual Show. In some ways this feels like the edge of urban sketching since it's a bit farm-related. Still, there are two things make me think that it still qualifies.

Firstly, it is held in a town hall and this is a reminder that all centres in the province of Taranaki are still dependent on farming (in different percentages) to keep the economies running smoothly. And secondly, I've heard that New Zealand has a rule where no birds or eggs are allowed into the country to prevent an exposure to bird flu - so the varieties and breeds that are here need to be well managed. It's also (maybe as a result) starting to be more and more common for someone to keep some chickens on suburban properties. I'm mentioning this since in quite a few places in the urban world, keeping animals like this is probably illegal.

Jackie even purchased a couple that were for sale to add to her existing coop. As a buyer, she had quite a selection to choose from. There were all types of chickens and pigeons with a few ducks as well.

It makes sense to integrate the rural into the cities since they maybe aren't that separate anyway.

Last year (March 2012), on our old website (that is lost in cyberspace), I wrote a Part 1:
"We decided to meet at the edge of the city where suburbia blends into rural. It was a great day and a quiet and pleasant place to sketch.
My parents have a old picture of a very tiny me in their backyard and on the other side of the fence is a cow. I've never remembered the farm behind us. I've always known it to be a sea of suburban houses that has always been there. As I was sketching this scene, I wondered how many more years that it would be until this area is subdivided and paved."

Taranaki Poultry and Pigeon Annual Show, Waitara.

Today was the chook show in Waitara. It is always on the first weekend in May. I like to go because I love to see all the different poultry breeds, and I love chooks. It's a great place to go sketching, people, lots of activity and plenty of poultry to draw. I managed to convince Trevor and Brian to come too. I decided to travel light and only took pencils and sketchbook. This meant I got way more sketching done!

Here are my sketches:

Blue Swedish Old Drake. Second place.

ModScietti Magnani C.Y.R Ck. Second Place.

The only problem I have with the chook show is I sometimes buy chooks! This year I bought two.
Here's one of them:

White Leghorn Pullet. Hopefully she'll lay for the winter.