Liardet Street in New Plymouth runs from the sea to the gates of world famous Pukekura Park. Stylish villa's were build in the early 1920's and 30's  which enhance the street.
[ MLB, Art in Ballance . 0.01 drawing pen , Tombow colour pens and brush.] 

The fishing jetty at Port Taranaki is a popular spot and next to the marina. A lovely sunny day, last day of winter. [ 0.01 drawing pen , Tombow watercolour pens and brush]

What is the colour of the breeze?  A beautiful installation by Tiffany Singh for the 2013 Taranaki International Arts Festival. Chrildren ran through the lines of 1001 chimes , hands out to make the soft tones.  The wind did likewise.  MLB [ Tombow pens and brush]

What is the colour of the breeze?

Taranaki International Arts Festival 2013

Tiffany Singh creates a community-connected project using wind chimes to focus on the potency, energy and meanings of colour.

For this project the Govett-Brewster education team worked with Taranaki children who, in adorning each wind chime with the hues of the rainbow, created their own colour symbolism and wish for the community.

These 1001 bamboo wind chimes transform an open air cityscape into a sensory experience where people are surrounded by the colour and sound of the chimes. They hang from a spectrum of ribbons and create a vibrant large-scale instrument.

Reference:
http://www.govettbrewster.com/Events/Event-Details/e/1305/title/tiffany-singh-what-is-the-colour-of-the-breeze

The words that came to my mind were "Living Harmony", especially when the wind was blowing. Children loved it. They were running up and down making the chimes sound.

Here is my sketch:

This one was not easy. There was so much going on it was hard to know what to sketch!

Metro Plaza

The Metro Plaza is a pretty cool old-timey building that goes unnoticed. The two trees that I drew in this sketch are actually in front of the words, "Metro" and "Plaza". By moving them out a bit, you can now see the retro features, such as the type and the strange half circle design feature (which I am guessing to be made of steel). Also, it has oddly prominent front double doors that comes out of the upper floor. Stairs comes down on BOTH sides of the awning in case there is tons of people that need to get to safety in extravagance. It seems like a stage set to me where a musical could be performed.

At the bottom is an arcade with shops (not the kind with Pac-Man) that lead to a parking building. I remember that there used to be an American-themed bar in there that was closed once because it was a New Zealand public holiday. Still, other pubs were open and I though it was weird that an American bar wouldn't be open for the Super Bowl, which was the same day. Well, today it isn't there.

Te Henui Cemetery

It was deathly quiet in the dead centre of town.  Very pleasant in fact.
Salaman's mausoleum is a domed structure with minarets in each corner - built at the cost of a small house.  Dated 1941 the tomb houses Salaman from the Punjab, a silk merchant, dyer of khaki for WWI troops and a herbalist who got into trouble from the law from time to time.  Over 2000 attended his funeral. The bronze gates were pinched in 1992.
Sketcher - Nora's car adorns the corner.

 
 


Salaman's Tomb - last time I drew it over two years ago:

Julie's rendition



Te Henui Cemetery

The old part of the cemetery is far more interesting than the newer sections. The older graves have a sculptural quality to them, each one having their own look. Cemented sections with established trees are placed up and down the hilly bit and not always in rows. The new parts are just straight lines of headstones with wide gaps of grass. I was sitting in a terraced area with angled rows that mimicked the original topography of the hillside. I also noticed that most of these headstone use fancier (sometimes scripty) type than is commonly used on newer headstones. 

Last time I was here was two years ago and below is the sketch (and a digitally coloured version) from then. While I was there I noticed a headstone for the Viking Lander out of the corner of my eye. (The 1970's Mars Mission?) Surely, not! At the very least, wasn't it on another planet? (I explain it better on my other blog.)

2011 sketch

2011 sketch - coloured

Nissan Micra's Big Day Out

I actually came here to sketch the intersection. There was a street bench with a nice view up the hill that I had scoped out the day before. On the day, a Nissan Micra was parked right in my perfect view. (I guess there was no car parked here the day before.) 

So I thought, if this car was, say, a Maserati I would have no trouble starting my drawing. I thought, even though this car isn't an extreme luxury auto, it could be someone's treasured little car. Maybe it even has name (like Rupert, even)! 

So in the end, I decided to show this little runabout a little love and feature it right in the middle. He's probably really enjoying his day out in downtown New Plymouth. 

Westown.

Today we went sketching in Westown. The forecast was for cloud and showers, but we ended up with clear blue skies and a gloriously sunny day.
I sketched the view across the roundabout with Mount Taranaki in behind the shops.

Here is my sketch:

 

I did this one with artline pen and watercolour pencil. I haven't done this for a while and I quite enjoyed the change!