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.

Wet White Hart Hotel

This wasn't my first choice of what to draw this week but the rain made us find shelter to draw. Trying to stay dry, I made a few mistakes in my slow and careful drawing style. Instead of ripping out the page and starting again, I went back into it with a heavy pen and saved it.
This thing really is brutal to draw. With so much repetitive detail in the building, even I have trouble not getting bored with it all. I have to say that I didn't mind sketching this after I started to let go a bit and draw it loosely.

Last weeks sketch and this weeks sketch.

So the meeting place today was by the clock tower near the new Len Lye Centre that's being built. We looked at the new building, it's starting to look spectacular with it's stainless steel skin going up. No idea how to draw that!

The Clock Tower reflected in the new stainless steel skin.

So here is my sketch. The old and the new. The White Hart Hotel and the scaffolding over the Len Lye Centre.

 And last Saturday. 14/03/2015.

Last week we went to Brougham Street and I sketched the lovely old building that used to be Andre's Restaurant.

Art Deco Weekend

ART DECO WEEKEND ....Napier..... just to prove that while the Team were hard at it at home , I was trying to do my bit while away . Great fun.  Pretty crowded to get much done but .....    MLB

Waiwhakaiho River from Merrilands Domain.

I finally sat down and finished this one today. Eileen and I went out sketching to the Merrilands Domain a couple of weeks ago. We had a go at the Waiwhakaiho River winding it's way through the rocks. For a change I used watercolour pencil.

18/2/2015.

Fresh Prints of Bel Airs

Americarna, the American Car Festival was in New Plymouth last weekend. Again, the CBD was closed down and became a classic car show. Angela and I found a shady bit with a view between two blocks of cars. Half way through our drawings, we realized that we were drawing the same type of car... a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air! 

(Car Nerd Info: The 2nd car behind my Bel Air is a 1960 Chevrolet Impala.)