Brougham Street tree

You could say that this is a sketch of the hotel on the corner. You could also say that this is a view of Brougham Street looking out to the sea. It actually is of the the large inner-city tree at the top of the hill. That other stuff just happens to be in it too.

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.

Colourize Project: Chaos Cafe

If I have the time I've started to add watercolour to sketches. Some of my older ones are getting the colour treatment too.

Kings Building, New Plymouth NZ

The Kings Building is a landmark in the New Plymouth CBD. It houses  retail shops, upstairs commercial offices and a Penthouse which has a wonderful view of the New Plymouth waterfront. An interesting feature is that it is built over a stream . The downstairs premises were subject to occasional flooding before a flood protection scheme was constructed .  The eastern end of  the Kings Building includes the Espresso Cafe which now looks over the  Huatoki Plaza and uncovered part of the  Huatoki stream.  MLB  .

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.

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.

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.)

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.

New Brougham St Space

Sunny day, The Mondegreens playing, kids drawing in chalk, a pleasant offical celebration of the new area.

The DJ following on: