Aro Park

Woman with tree growing out of head. Composition dictated by my desire to sit rather than stand. Such is urban sketching.

From the Coral Route to Point Chevalier

Our youngest had been badgering me to take him to MOTAT for ages. It's such a great place for sketching that I caved in easily – not that he had any plans for me to stop and sketch for more than about five minutes. Sketching with kids is more like a speed event where you dash the linework down and if you're lucky splash a bit of colour on the page.

In the end it was a toss-up between sketching the Short Solent and the Lancaster bomber, both impressive beasts. It's bizarre to look into the tiny tail turret of the Lancaster and imagine my old colleague Denis freezing his proverbials off while being shot at over 3 tours of Europe during the war. Those guys were seriously brave.

I decided on the Solent because I could include the Transavia Airtruck (on the right), the Australian designed, kiwi built top dresser which is shaped like a flying flea.

The Short Solent Aranui has an interesting and much more fun history — run by TEAL (Tasman Empire Airways Limited) it originally flew between Mechanics Bay, Auckland and Rose Bay, Sydney. We're talking pre-harbour bridge days here — it would have used a LOT of the harbour as it's runway!

Once land based planes took over the Sydney route Aranui flew the 'Coral Route' — that's Auckland to Fiji, onward to Samoa, then the Cook Islands (landing at Aitutaki not Rarotonga), next stop would have been Tonga and finally Tahiti — about 20 odd hours in total. Now that would be a superb way to fly to the islands!

Harbour Board Offices

Mr Black organised a great sketchcrawl on Saturday, in and around Wellington Museum. The weather was a bit rubbish so most headed "in", but not me - I'm tough so I braved the "around" and numbed my fingers drawing the Wellington Harbour Board Wharf Office Building next door. It was designed by Frederick de Jersey Clere in 1892, who later designed the Church of St Mary of the Angels.

Once I had finished, and guessed the colour of Dave's trousers incorrectly, I chickened out and took shelter indoors.I guess I'm not that tough.

Buller Street

Just an ordinary street in Wellington apart from the fact the motorway is sunken down beside it.

Nun Run

Today we did some sketching we don't really want to make a habit of.

Half a dozen nuns under the fatherly eye of the Bishop were having a cheerful time running on treadmills in our Centre City Shopping mall.  Apart from raising money for a charity they were advertising the upcoming operatic show 'Sister Act'.  They were getting by passing children to dress up as nuns and join them.

My mum drew half a dozen sketches and gave several away to the running nuns. Here's a couple of mum's.

Burger truck

This is the front of the EKIM (mike spelt backwards I believe) burger truck on Cuba street, Wellington. It dispenses delicious burgers and you can sit in the 'garden bar' made of upcycled bus seats and other salvaged materials.

Wellington Jazz Festival 2016

Thoroughly enjoyed drawing and listening to these guys play Glenn Miller tunes at Meow Bar last week when the Jazz Festival was on.

Judges Bay, Parnell

This one took a few days to finish. I only had half an hour that first day with the Big Draw group, so needed to come back and fill in some blanks. Luckily the sun was out again so I could catch the warm early morning light casting shadows across the headstones. There's a lot of detail to try to fit in looking across Judges Bay, over Tamaki Drive to the busy port and the North Shore across the harbour.


I did this super quick sketch of the port from the carpark on Gladstone Road on my way home. The port is so close at this point you can get a really good look at the action.

The Fergusson Container Terminal was flat out loading containers onto several vessels while a tug towing something oversized ambles past in the background.

I think Auckland's waterfront would lose a lot of it's charm and interest if we got rid of the port.

Fidels

Fidels cafe is usually good whatever way you look at it. It's in an old shop called Supercuts but they've left the signage on this window because its authentic. It's a Wellington icon where movie stars and locals mix. Mostly locals actually.

Shanghai Noon

Last week I was in China for work, but I did meet up with a Shanghai sketcher friend who took me out with the amiable Shanghai group.  They were very professional water colourists who meet at 9am and nobly work till 2pm each Saturday (with lunch break).  It was the season of Plum Rains, mild but wet, and they were painting under cover in a park.

My sketcher friend also took me to the historic Puxi area - a cobbled street with arches at each end. This was Mr Hong's house the 3rd most important person in the prewar Nationalist Kuomintang government - the Finance Minister.  ie after Sun Yat Sen and Shiang Kai-shek. We had to assume 'umbrella sketching' to avoid blobs of water on our paper. A guy in a singlet and tartan pants up to his armpits appeared out of the front door and finished his cheroot.

In the same area was an unusual (for China) building.  Traditional Chinese on the outside yet a handsome Western church within.  When we showed the caretakers our sketches who kindly gave us a tour - explaining how under earlier Communist rule it had been many other things including a library, but was now a fully functioning church again.

One night I went across to 'The Brew' where Westerners hang out.  A band began to play - they called for requests, and had a huge repertoire and were great to hear.  At a break I discovered they were all (but the Canadian lead singer) from Hamilton NZ  and call themselves 'Solidaz'.  They've lived in the hotel with their families for 20 years, playing several hours a night as their job!

Raglan Roast

Raglan Roast Coffee shop is in a converted industrial garage on Able Smith Street in Wellington. It has an up-cycled fitout done cool with no pretense. You can hang out on an old sofa, or grab some beans and run. 

Hockey: India vs The World

Occasionally, we'll go down to the hockey arena if there's an Inline Hockey tournament on. Earlier this year, there was an International Regional Qualifier Tournament. The best of this part of the world were fighting for a spot in the tournament with the big hockey-playing nations. When we first got there, a team from Taipei was playing India and up 8-0. Then noticed that the first digit on the score was dim and it was actually 18-0. The game finished 26-0 and India looked pretty shell-shocked. You might expect a team to let another up for air after a certain number of goals, but not this time. In this competition, if there was a tie it would go to points scored so all the teams were playing pretty hard against India. I just felt awful for them. I later learned that New Zealand beat India 37-0 and Japan went all the way to 42-0. On the good side, at least India didn't have to play anymore games this year.

The Arborist Rooftop Bar

A sketch I did back in February when it was warm, not like today which was freezing cold.  At the Arborist rooftop bar in Wellington.  Rooftop bars are a new trend in Wellington, several have opened recently including this one.

Touring Auckland's suburbs

Birkenhead, Auckland. A perfect spot to sketch enjoy coffee and avoid the Autumn downpours!

Takapuna Beach, Auckland. Enjoying the last of the rays of Sun shine as we head into Winter.