House & 6-Car Garage

I'm mildly fascinated with the fact that this is a small BP gas station and also a house. A newly built set-up would have no accommodation and way more pumps. (Isn't this kind of thing dangerous too?) I wonder how much longer a place like this can exist as it is in our sometimes over-regulated and high-profit world.

Sketchcrawl day

This little old typewriter appealed to me. I love the detail of the keys and check out the paper spike, an absolute office necessity before we had post-its.I can't imagine wanting to draw an old computer keyboard to the same extent sometime in the future.

Wednesday Art Group

We are back on track with our Wednesday Art Classes. A very good session today in deconstructing an object into shapes and different tonal values. We are all making extremely good progress even though today was only our 5th class!

Our model was this beautiful 1920's mannequin.

We are also learning about different techniques and landscape.

Trevor, Eileen and Norah deconstructing!

Currie Street phonebooth

How many more years until there are no more telephone booths?

Maori taiha and patu

The taiaha is not meant for throwing but for hand to hand fighting and thrusting under the neck. Just behind the head of the taiaha would be a tuft of white feathers to help distract the enemy. The eyes are of paua shell. Notice the similarity of patterns even though from different iwi (tribes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVQNHFCGl1w

The whale bone patu is used similarly, not for bopping on the head. Patu also means to hit or strike.

39th Worldwide Sketchcrawl Day - Pioneer Village

On a showery cold day we headed down to the Taranaki Pioneer Village near Stratford. I stuck to sketching indoors.

Here is the old Pembroke School Room:

I went back to pen drawing with this one.

After lunch I went up to the Mangatoki Church.

In 1904 the need for a local church resulted in a Union Church being built to serve local Methodists, Anglicans and Presbyterians. Mr Blackhall of Eltham submitted the successful tender for the church. The final church service was held at Mangatoki on 14.2.1988. The church was then moved to the Taranaki Pioneer Village in two sections on 29.3.1988 and 30.3.1988.
The Mangtoki Women's Institute continue to care for the church and the gardens.

This is the beautiful old wooden pulpit:

 

This one I did in pencil and my new watercolours.

Hauraki Cycle Trail

50 cycle enthusiasts set out on a bus for the Hauraki Cycle Trail with most of the bikes following on a trailer. A spring broke, causing the trailer to break down. So what to do while waiting for a new trailer? I must have been the only one happy to fill in half an hour.  The cycle duly went ahead and a great day had by all.
So that's the way I spent my Sketch Crawl day with more to come.

Pioneer Village Sketch Crawl

Extra prolific at today's Sketch Crawl at the Taranaki Pioneer Village

Milk Cart in the implements barn

 

Pembroke School relocated here

Plumber and tinsmith's shop

Village forge - I took the liberty of lighting it metaphorically speaking

 

Mangatoki Church

 

 

 

Early Setters - 39th World Wide Sketch Crawl

The driest spot in the province today, the Stratford Pioneer Village.
A snitch of drizzle versus the downpours elsewhere which were delighting the drought stricken farmers.

Court House with fiddly fretwork

Train on the main street

 

 Every NZ Pioneer Village needs a Fergie to clean up around the place.

 



 



 

 

This 1948 Farmall is what used to clean up early villages in the past.

 

 

Maurice & Trisha

Sketching the Farmall

 

 Sketching the milk cart

Refueling for Round 2 

Goodbye Landscape Road

This house, once standing in park like gardens with a tennis court has been stripped to bare bones, and waiting to be shipped out to make way for some more boring apartments.  Fortunately it is going to a good home in the country where it will be restored to it's former glory.

Road to the sea

I'm looking down the hill of Brougham Street, through central New Plymouth and out to sea. With sailboats on the horizon and passive pedestrian shoppers, the light cool breeze feels like the end of summer. The Wind Wand sculpture seems like it wants to be just another sign or street light from this angle. And there are lots of signs and lights here directing the traffic. There's way less Volkswagens this week, now that the big VW show is over but way more Porsches and Ferraris.

Brougham Street

Today we were in and around Brougham Street. I did my sketch from the corner of Brougham and Powderham Streets, looking down Brougham Street to the centre of town. The sea and the windwand are in the distance.

On the right of my sketch you can see Halamoana. I decided I was up for the challenge today. I've been wanting to sketch it for a while, but wasn't brave enough!

The 14m aluminium sculpture Halamoana ("Ocean Pathway") was erected in August 2003.

Its design is based on tufunga lalava, the traditional Tongan binding system used to lash houses or canoes.

Halamoana makes a striking statement on the corner of Brougham and Powderham streets - and when viewed from the top of Brougham Street, it stands to one side of a view shaft down to the sea, with Puke Ariki seen just to the left.

Every night Halamoana is lit with red and blue light, turning it into a modern beacon in central New Plymouth.

Reference:

http://www.newplymouthnz.com/OurDistrict/Attractions/PublicSculptures/Halamoana.htm

Brougham Porche

The car attracted me to this spot in the street.  We phoned up the car park to see how many minutes they would be, to see if I could get it done before the owners whizzed off.  I had 45 minutes.