Virtual Paintout, Zealand, Denmark

At the Govett-Brewster

Whenever I sketch inside the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, my drawings look a bit strange. Images of a surreal dream. Looking over a half-wall to a lower floor was a rotating mobile sculpture made of steel, lit brightly from one side and casting a shadow on a grey wall. In front of that was a video projected onto a hanging panel. I could imagine that if I didn't describe the scene a bit more you would be wondering what you are looking at.

The next two were from a different show at the same gallery, about one year earlier. One was an overhead view of some visitors watching a group of musicians interpret the different pieces. The other is another strange drawing of the result.

 

New Plymouth Prison - Detail

When we were sketching the prison,
I was thinking about the oldness of
the building and the modern additions.

Govett Brewster Art Gallery.

Nations by NS Harsha.

Nations is an installation of treadle sewing machines and hand-painted flags that represent the 192 countries in the United Nations, all entangled with threads. Through this work, Harsha highlights international politics and the outsourcing of disenfranchised and alienated labourers in response to the demands of world economies. Unlike the previous presentations of this work at the 2009 Sharjah Biennial in the United Arab Emirates and also in 2009, at INIVA in London, this installation at the Govett-Brewster features heirloom sewing machines loaned from people and museums in Taranaki and Whanganui, calling to mind personal and social histories of Aotearoa New Zealand.

 Here is my sketch. I was told this was one of the oldest sewing machines used. I found this an exhibition well worth visiting. I enjoyed the old sewing machines, and the vibrancy of the colours used in the flags.
Jackie.

All stitched up

Whilst it hosed down outside, we sketchers nobly drew a sea of heirloom treddle sewing machines from the homes of Taranaki.  Mainly old Singers with ornate goldwork, carvings, and wrought iron.
I chose this hand operated machine.

New Plymouth Prison

Prison

Otago Chambers - Stratford

No bars held

       











New Plymouth prison has held the rich and famous since the 1840's

Todd Energy Aquatic Centre.

Today I spent the afternoon at the Todd Energy Aquatic Centre. It is an indoor and outdoor swimming pool and complex centrally located in New Plymouth.

I took note of the Lifeguards, especially the ones standing in the centre of two pools. They were parading up and down and then posing as if they were on the catwalk. Too tempting for a sketcher!

The difficulty was they didn't stop for long, and every time I was getting somewhere, they would change to a different guard. I managed to get two of them.

This one took his job very seriously:

This one was a little more laissez faire:

 Jackie.

New Plymouth Prison

We had a good turn out today to sketch the New Plymouth Prison. It was a beautiful sunny warm spring day and everyone was keen.

This prison, dates from the 1870s, and it is the country's oldest prison still operating. Today it is used as a minimum to high-medium security facility for 112 prisoners, plus offenders on remand. It is due to be decommisioned on the 1st March 2013. It is listed as a Category I historic place by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. It currently has 80 prisoners and that number is gradually being wound down.

It is now deemed an earthquake risk and unsuited to modern standards of justice, its doors will clang shut for the last time when most current prisoners will have finished their terms.

Here is my sketch:

  
    Jackie

New Plymouth Prison

George Wilder escaped from here.  New Zealand's oldest prison built 1861 originally as a military hospital within sight of Marslands Hill.  Soon to be decommissioned next year.
Our friendly Corrections Officer related various stories, including a prisoner who leap over the wire and wall into the darkness, hobbled to a phone to make a call to his mum to pick him up, who promptly dobbed him in.