Dawn Service

Sketching in the dark at this mornings ANZAC Day dawn service.

City boat shed

City boat shed. Graham Downs.

Speedsters and Glass Houses

The 2013 Studebaker meet was held in New Plymouth this Easter, some 60 of these monsters roamed the town.  I was fortunate enough to go for a drive in an Avanti - a car with no teeth, but boy could it go with its 5L engine.

 

 

This 1951 Studebaker Champion has the trimline name of Starlite Coupe owing to its fascinating 180 degree glasshouse rear window.  It also sports a bomber nosed grill

 

 

1955 Studebaker President Speedster - only a couple of thousand of these were made that year.  South Bend is at the top of the boot of Indiana (we once lived in Indiana - home of the Hoosiers)

A prior weeks expedition to the Vicarage, a tiny old stone building now housing potters, pottering.

Newtown Festival Street Fair 2014

I went to the Newtown Festival Street Fair last month.  The weather was perfect and it was huge, with over 75,000 people.  There was a great line-up of live entertainment with several stages and many stalls and street food vendors.

Two members of the energetic Balkanistas playing on the main stage.  They are a large collective (over 20 musicians) that play Eastern European gypsy music.  Loved these guys.

Folk/indie/pop band My Chameleon going their stuff. These guys were great too.

Tiny smoothie caravan on one of the side streets.

ITU World Triathlon Championships 2014

My attempts to capture the Elite Woman's cycle leg during the first leg of the World Triathlon champs.

I had strategically positioned myself at the top of the climb on Victoria Street as I figured they would be going their slowest here and would be easier to draw, wishful thinking though because these girls were absolutely flying up the hill. My sketches ended up looking more like blind contour drawings as I tried to get them down on paper.

At this stage of the race two kiwis, Nicky Samuels and Kate McIlroy were leading a breakaway bunch of 3 which included the eventual winner, Jodie Stimpson from Great Britain.

Port Giants

 

Luciano Fantuzzi founded the company who makes these Sky Lifters, in Reggio Emilia, Italy in 1960.  Today it is a big name worldwide in container loading forklifts.  A clutch of these monsters were parked up at Port Taranaki through the fence from the yacht club where we were sketching.

 



Lepperton Ride-On Lawnmower Race Day

So we went to a country school gala day to draw. To those not in New Zealand, this is a school fair that is a fundraiser. The classic raffles, food, bouncy castles, and skill games are all there. But Lepperton turned this one up to eleven and had the 2nd annual Ride-On Lawnmower Grand Prix. It really is what you expect and what it sounds like. You can modify your tiny tractor to some degree but the engine has to be legit. Then they set up a race track in the sports field and say goodbye to the lawn.

Maybe it's a little bit bogan (which is a downunder redneck) but it's all good fun and raised thousands of dollars for this small rural school. It was really sunny and hot so I took some video so I could document this but not have to sit in the sun. I went to sit in the shade and did a drawing of the little kids quad bikes. This is where kids paid a few bucks to race around a circle of hay bales and tires on throttled-down mini quad bikes while wearing oversized helmets. Half of them loved it and the other half seemed terrified. They certainly weren't as fast as the real racers on the day but maybe one of these kids will get a chance to compete in the big leagues in a future gala day.