Tribute to our good friend & sketcher Maurice

New Plymouth Waterfront

Sketching and sunburns... Summer's back!

Taranaki Gardens

Taranaki just had multiple simultaneous garden festivals. After looking through the programmes and maps, I decided to visit some at random entrants' properties after I grabbed my watercolours.

Day trip into the eastern Taranaki farmland

 A trip into the farming area of Tarata and Purangi , inland  between Waitara and Inglewood , Taranaki NZ. This follows the Waitara river and included large stands of native bush , river flats and hill country. I came across a muster of sheep, the farmer slowed the droving to allow time for photos and quick roadside sketches. He was wondering what I was doing this far from town in my MX5 sportscar !  .  The old shed was dark with green covering the original red-shed paint work. Still looked great.  MLB

Fountain Lake

In Pukekura Park, there is a lake that has a fountain in the middle of it. A button on the edge activates a cycle of alternating water patterns for a couple of minutes. Kids love pushing it to get the fountain started. When I was there, a couple of men in suits were walking around doing work. I could tell because they were pointing at many things. One of them pointed to the button and the other one pressed it. Big smiles all around. Businessmen love the fountain too.

WELLINGTON visit

Cuba Street buildings in Wellington. Quick sketch in this most interesting street.

Sketching in Pukekura Park

An opportunity to join other Taranaki Sketchers on a lovely bright spring day in Pukekura Park , New Plymouth NZ.  This small waterfall is part of a continuing water course that flows through this beautiful park. MLB

Kings Building

It's finally spring and I'm out in the afternooon sun. A few days later, I see this headline in the local news. It looks like I'm back to indoor sketching.

Food Court Lunch

I had some extra time while shopping so I sketched the mall food court. I noticed three things:
1.  It's amazing how little time people take when eating in a food court. People aren't there to chat; it's all business so that makes for some fast sketching. I definitely feel sketching people in a proper cafe is easier.
2.  About 80% of females partaking in a food court lunch had longer hair tied back in a ponytail.
3.  The fast food franchise kiosks with huge advertising budgets get a return on their investment. There was a constant queue for burgers while some of the other places were super quiet. The Chinese food place had one guy just standing there behind a buffet, with no takers. I kept looking over at him and it never changed. (When this one was done though, I went over to Mr. Lonely and bought a plate of sweet and sour pork.)

Kākāpō

In Puke Ariki museum again; this time drawing a Kākāpō. It's a New Zealand flightless parrot and as of today, there's only 142 left. Click here to find out more or to donate to their recovery!