Summer's Closed

We've been having such great summer days that it's hard to find time to see the indoor exhibitions at Puke Ariki museum. We went to the show, "At the Beach: 100 years of summer fashion in New Zealand" on the last weekend before it closed and was refreshed by a new exhibit. The next day, we got tons of rain, here in New Plymouth, from a front of a cyclone. The day after that, we lost power for four hours due to strong winds. So... can we have an extension on the show and get our summer back?

Pukekura Park Tea House

In the attempt to stay out of the heat, I went into Pukekura Park to sketch in the shade. As I sketched the Tea House on the lake, I kept thinking how they sell ice cream. Of course I was too weak to resist.

St Mary's Cathedral Lych Gate.

A cloudy cooler day just right for sketching. We went to St Mary's Cathedral lych gate. It was built in 1919 by Henry Weston and his nephews. In the foreground are the crosses for the unknown soldiers from the Taranaki Maori wars. The second picture has all our sketches. Only three of us today. Myself, Trevor and Maurice.

Here is my sketch:

Here are all our sketches:

At the Beach

1960's At the Beach display at Puke Ariki

Marsland Hill

View towards the port

Fitzroy Lifesaving Club Kiosk

I drew this one last summer but waited until it was coloured before I posted it. Turns out that it took me a year to bring it back out. I remember sketching it. Last year we had a terrible rainy summer with that one day of sun. Well, this was that day and it was a scorcher. I had a tons of sunscreen on but in the end, it was pretty brutal just sitting in the sun drawing. The worst part was that I kept looking at the "ice cold drinks" sign the whole time. I promised that when I was done, I was going to walk over there and buy one. It was maybe one of the best drinks of my life.
So here we are one year later and it's been very warm every single day. The Fitzroy Surf Lifesaving Club Kiosk is in colour. I've actually printed and framed this one and is now added to the window at the Bookstop Gallery as part of my display for the month of February.

Some of my work on show

I have some work in the window of the Bookshop Gallery on Brougham Street, here in New Plymouth. I'll be adding and changing the selection throughout the month of February.