Back of Tanuki's Cave

This is the back of the excellent Tanuki’s Cave and Kura cafes behind Auckland’s Queen Street. Sketched with Urban Sketchers Auckland last weekend. Sadly they weren't yet open when we finished, frozen and in need of a hot sake!

So fun to draw all the old bricks, flaky paint etc, especially on the kraft paper. Really nice that everything in this city isn’t completely redeveloped, shiny and corporate

Sentinel Beach

An old sketch. Obviously pre-Covid, this tiny inner city beach can be completely overrun with people.

I can never figure out why as much, much better (and cleaner💩!) beaches are just a 10min drive over the bridge on the North Shore.

Hopefully we’ll be able to gather like this again this summer.

Surf and sketch at Whangamatā

Hadn't been to 'Whanga' for years, so good to spend a couple of days there – just as some warmer weather arrives. Even did some surfing – badly – and feeling sore as a result!

Government House Gardens

We had  a great day sketching the Governor General's house and gardens.
The message afterwards was that Dame Patsy Reddy was most impressed, and invited us to return in the Spring when the gardens would be blooming.

 

Old 'A-frame' baches and tua tuas

Happy New Year sketchers! I'm starting the year off with my last sketches of 2019. These were sketched at Papamoa Beach in the Bay of Plenty while gathering tua tuas. 

I love the old 'A-frame' baches from the 70's and there are still a few of them dotted around Papamoa. This one is embellished with a faux Italian balustrade and an enclosed sun room on the front – not  exactly 'rigidig' as they say but as it's for sale, it could all be yours for a rediculous fee!

The tua tuas were delicious by the way – olive oil, garlic, parsley and steamed for a few minutes in a small amount of sea water. 

Car troubles

I've been having a few car troubles lately so have been in and out of the garage a few times.

The good thing about having an old car is you have to go to a garage that understands old cars, and those garages are full of old cars – just perfect for the sketcher.

A good example is the sketch at the top, they had an E-type and an MG Midget up on the hoists, there were some other MG's and an old 50's Austin out that back that I'm going to sketch next time I'm in (let's hope that's a while off because the latest work means I'm broke).

The jags rear subframe was out for work so I got a good nosey at it. Quite an impressive piece of engineering – fully independent suspension with inboard disc brakes and two coil-over gas shocks on each side. Quite a lot more sophisticated than your usual old car!

I got to sketch this absolutely mint black '32 MG, and another white E-type which pops nicely off the page using a white Posca pen on kraft paper...

USk Auckland goes large in Avondale...

...printed large that is. A few months back we sketched in Avondale as guests of the Whau Arts Festival. Well thanks to Whau the People our sketches have now been enlarged substantially, mounted and are on display in the old 3Guys site. They look surprisingly good enlarged! 

Here are a selection of them below (mine are on the grey paper) and they'll be on display until the end of December. Check them out if you're in the area, they're in a car park so you can even drive around them....

Jana Hoffman's pages

Quite a few sketches feature 'Dale' the Avondale spider sculpture. Many Avondale spiders were shipped to Hollywood to become stars of the movie Arachnophobia and are actually Australian Huntsman spiders that first arrived arrived here in the 20's on railway sleepers.

Eric Ngan's sketch on the left – who's that is on the right?

Jackson Wong's sketch of the racecourse

Jane Grimond's sketch

Shailee Adke's sketch on the left

Holdens

I was sketching the people checking out some down-under cars that were driven here from all over New Zealand on the weekend.

Two cars down was a blue Holden that had a sign that featured a sketch by Murray Dewhurst.

Let's Sketch Auckland

I get a kick out of seeing the bemused expressions on peoples faces as they enter a cafe with a big group sketching each other in a cafe.

 

I finally made it to a 'Let's Sketch' having missed New Plymouth 2017 and Wellington in 2018. Pretty hard to miss this one when it's just down the road eh.

The weekend saw dozens of sketchers join us in Auckland for 2 days of sketching. They came from all over with a good mix of our usuals, a couple of new faces, Anne, Andrew, Dave and Gerrard from Wellington, Tina from Whangarei, a sketcher from Singapore and Hosannah from Guangzhou.

I really enjoyed hanging out with everyone and seeing them all enjoying themselves, and now I'm looking forward to next year — wherever that may be.