Huatoki eels

I decided that I wasn't done with the Huatoki Plaza so I did a watercolour sketch of the people feeding the eels that live the Huatoki stream. Most people that cross the pedestrian bridge like to stop and have a look over the edge to see how huge and freaky these things are looking today.

(The 2nd half of the video looks a bit strange with the walkway and the sky reflection; it's like the eels are in the sky or something.)

Huatoki Plaza

Huatoki Plaza was a retail building that was removed to expose the covered stream beneath it. New Plymouth made a reasonably boring urban space for people to ignore. One day, an artist put up a paste-up image of a face to try to make it better. It probably did because these days, the Plaza has several artists' work on various buildings that face it. I've sketched one of the buildings a few times and currently has artwork by Phil 'Suspect' Jones. His studio is actually in the Plaza and his murals are all around town.

Colourize Project: Huatoki Street Art

Huatoki Plaza, where the recently flooded stream flows, has several major wall areas in or near it. Some of the artworks last a while and other walls seem to rotate more frequently. This is part of my Colorize Project so these are old sketches. The 2015 sketch looks pretty much the same where the 2013 wall has been painted over.

Colourize Project: Huatoki Stream

A couple of nights ago, we had a fair bit of rain here in Taranaki. When some people woke up this morning, they found themselves flooded. For the most part, if you lived near a river or something you might have had a bad day. There's a stream that flows through central New Plymouth and it overflowed in parts. These two sketches show that area in nicer weather. They both are part of my 'Colourize Project' where I take old sketches and give them the colour treatment.

Huatoki Plaza

The Puke Ariki Art Market is really not at Puke Ariki, instead it is under cover of 'The Triffids' at the Huatoki Plaza.  It was a winters day with a watery sun shining.  My mum drew about 8 pages to my one, and gave several away to the stall holders as they wanted to be drawn.

SketchCrawl 50

New Plymouth seems to have a reasonable amount of public art around the place. For this sketchcrawl, we tried to have a theme of the art that is around but to also try to show it in it's context. Try to visually describe where it is. I also brought some paints out this weekend. I'm a bit of a watercolour noob, but it turned out okay. I did a second quick one with a pen from the other direction.

The alley that I was in is on the left of this photo:

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  .

4th July 2015 Huatoki Stream

A lovely afternoon last Saturday sketching at Huatoki Plaza.

Here is my sketch of the Huatoki Stream:

Winter in Huatoki Plaza

It doesn't take much sun to change Taranaki people's minds to get outside. A break in the rain and everyone's walking in different directions like they're on a mission. I've drawn the Huatoki Plaza in New Plymouth a number of times. I was looking at my sketch archives and noticed that they are pretty much all done in the winter. So here I am again. I was on a mission too.

Get Up Urban Street Art Festival, Huatoki Plaza.

All I can say is WOW! What a fantastic festival. This is New Plymouth's first Urban Street Art event. The organisers chose the Huatoki Plaza as it is an under utilised and dull area in the centre of the CBD. Artists have come from all over New Zealand to take part. Forty I think. They are using a variety of mediums which include - aerosol, house paint, marker, paint, pens and stensils. Some are painted on the walls and sides of buildings, others are painted on temporary boards set up especially for the festival.

Here is my sketch:

The Artist:

Owen Dippie - is an internationally recognised artist from New Zealand. He endeavours to leave his mark on the world, rather than just exist in it.

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.

Huatoki Plaza Farmers Market

Kathy's Kete stall - Huatoki Plaza market - buzzing pre All Blacks France match on a gorgeous winters day