St Andrews

 

Sitting in the shade of a petrol station, using a fat 0.5 fineliner, I dashed off the fiddly bits by the roof and spire.  Sometimes the police spy from the base of the palm trees to spot drivers on their cell phones at the stop lights, and radio ahead to cops waiting further on.  I've sketched them doing this. An effective method that brings in many punters.

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!

A Wedding in Progress

I was in Nelson for the weekend a few months ago and sketched Christ Church Cathedral.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  A wedding was in progress in the Cathedral.

Taranaki Cathedral

The Taranaki Cathedral was forced to close indefinitely. After the Christchurch earthquakes, older buildings in New Zealand have a certain amount of time to be assessed and upgraded. This stone building is rated at something like 15%, which is pretty low. People aren't sure what can be done to make it safe while keeping the same style of architecture preserved. The price tag will also keep this place closed for quite a while.
There's quite a few buildings on the New Plymouth main shopping street that are likely going to need expensive retrofitting or replacing. Nobody knows what the downtown will look like in the future. Just like this place.

Windows to heaven

 Our little group has been asked to provide sketches of St Andrews church as part of the upcoming Fringe Festival.  Some will be on overhead projections.  This 'Fishers of Men' window had exquisite paua-like blues at the top and bottom.  The metal rods had just been added to prevent them blowing in during high winds.

The West Doors

Peeping out the entrance of St Andrew I captured the spotter of recalcitrant cellphone talking drivers -being radioed ahead to the flagger down.

This inflatable air concept began in 1992 in Nottingham.with 'EGGOPOLIS" - like a series of coloured eggs, and expanded to EXXOPOLIS in 2012 when 'Architects of Air' began the first luminarium. The cuppola on the right was inspired by the Chapter House of Southwell Minster featuring perpendicular windows with a stain glassed effect.
The New Plymouth site for the feature was nestled in a corner of Pukekura Park as part of The Taranaki Arts Festival. Families were streaming through.

4 palms

A row of four palm trees in front of a church, alongside a busy New Plymouth intersection. I had a few people shout from the cars during the red lights that my drawing was starting to come along. If you're one of those in traffic, checking out the finished version here, this one's for you.

Mixed bag

 Whilst the others tried sketching the reflections in the wavy stainless steel cladding of the newly constructed Len Lye gallery, I drew the facade of a nearby well-patronised gallery - Kina

St Andrews kindly especially opened their doors for us sketchers to draw within

A cool, crisp winters day - Ngamoto mission house and church at Moturoa.  If you look hard you can see one of our sketchers in the alcove drawing the stainglass window through a window!

THE JOYS OF SKETCHING

My mum drew me.  We are a dedicated lot

Windy Point hill, where I was interviewed about sketching at Access Radio. 

Five minutes in, I had second thoughts about what I'd tackled - who would design a thing like this! 

PADDOCK SKETCHING

Brian secretly took a photo of me sketching the radio mast.

The hill had the best panoramic view in town, right within the sub-urban city - a little known secret.

Church scars

Following Mr Black´s post, here is my church, one of the many churches that are currently "trapped" by fences, most of them are made out of bricks or stones, which means they were severally  damaged during the earthquake and they are not safe to come closer. I particularly liked this one, it shows scars of a later addition that was now demolished.

Two Churches in Newtown

I like the style of St Thomas's church, with its concrete block construction. Built in the 1960's or 1970's I guess. It's next to McDonalds in Riddiford Street.

and not far away the Mansfield Street Gospel Hall has plenty of character too.

Old and New

An old grave behind the cathedral with a new headstone.  The top of this one has the same sculptural 'cloth over an urn' that was on the stone from a sketch in August. The other one didn't seem that new so maybe this style is one of those 'timeless classics' that families keep choosing throughout the years. 

(This is also a similar view to a sketch from a couple years ago. A hot day and drawing in the shade under a tree. The tree on the right here is the same tree on the left in the red sketch.)

August

'Red' sketch from 2012

Cathedral & coffee

St Mary's Cathedral, New Plymouth - NZ's oldest stone church built in 1846.  Caught up in the Land Wars of 1860's the cemetery is full of regimental burials.
View through to the annex.  Experimenting again with splatter technique.  Looks like I need more practice.

The Raleigh House - near the sea.  It was umbrella sketching, keeping off some drizzle

 

 

Ozone Coffee*** Roasters - excellent café with industrial look, open cable trays, warehouse lights, and you can view through to the roasters and coffee tasting.

You can see the double exposure used with the guy at the counter.