Peggy Gordons

 

If you've ever been to Peggy Gordons and thought that you may have had too many, don't worry. It's the building... NOT YOU! The toilet is in what used to be a vault. That door really IS that heavy. So have another.

New Zealand Holiday Camping

 

Last sketch of 2022.

Taranaki Garden Festival 2022 (2 of 2)

 

Here's the second one that I did on the garden festival weekend but only just decided to watercolour it too. It was a breezy day and I found myself at this picnic area overlooking a stream that was out of the wind. After sketching this one, I noticed that this garden had a place where you could get scones with jam and cream. Will draw for food!

Taranaki Garden Festival 2022 (1 of 2)

I had seen that Theory Food was setting up a pop-up cafe in one of the gardens for the GardenFest. Of course I had to go and try all the cakes. While I was there, I hammered out a sketch too. I just used a pen, on location. Later, after it was sitting in my sketchbook for a while, I decided to give it the watercolour treatment on a rainy weekend.

Vintage Car Rally - Taranaki

 Vintage Car rally in Leperton and Inglewood.

Proud owner standing next to his 1928 Studebaker President.  He'd got married in it years ago.

Below owner Neville had just warranted his 1928 Rolls Royce Phantom the week before after years of beautiful restoration.  

As part of its pedigree, a prior owner Grandma Brown came 5th in the 1957 10,000 km Ampol Trial around Australia. 

The car competed three years running.

In the 1958 Ampol Trial, it experienced a rare mechanical failure - a piston burned out. The beautiful old engine ran very roughly on only five cylinders, and Granny's son didn’t like the vibrations running through the whole car. So, stopping in a small village in South Australia, he dropped the sump and removed the offending piston and connecting rod. Knowing the engine would then be seriously out of balance and would probably shake itself to pieces, he cut a piece from a farmer’s discarded ploughshare and taking a good look at the crankshaft, welded the piece onto the shaft to act as a balance weight. He then replaced the sump and pressed the starter. The old Rolls was back to its smooth self again - down on power but no vibrations!

I had a fraction of a second's fame on Seven Sharp just after the rally - me sketching, and a picture of my best side (my back).

Oakura Christmas

Another year without a white Christmas. What a bummer... it was horrible!

Jury Garden

This is a sketch from one of the gardens that was in the Garden Festival. It still seems intact after the crowds returned home.

Triathlon Finish

This one's from March when we were watching the triathlons finish at Ngamotu Beach. You can see here that there was a big screen behind the podium. It had drone footage of the other parts of the course so that we knew when to clap.

Speedway Midgets

 A well attended proud display remembering Taranaki Speedway midgets.  Apparently pre 70's it was the place to go along with the movies

Fake Lighthouse

This is a fake lighthouse. We were driving around the coast and thought that we would like like to turn off and see it again. We've been there before but it was a number of years ago. When we got there it was watching over the stormy boat launch. Since we were there last, a boat club building was also built next to it. But then we remembered, it wasn't exactly on the shore like this and was also on a small hill. It turns out that Google said that the actual one, that is pretty much identical, is another minute drive down a road from where we were. This was a fake replica that looks pretty much the same, in almost the same place as the other one. Since we were already there though, and it was against the dark grey sea, we thought that this one would be at least as interesting to sketch.

Inglewood Signs & Posters

Here's another one from Inglewood. I found a bench out of the sun and noticed all the signs and posters. The top signs were reasonably redundant. The left one was missing a bit in the middle displaying a plywood midriff. Beside that one was a flippy one that displayed different ads, except that it didn't flip or display anything.

Fitzroy Beach

 A no-breeze glassy-water morning at Fitzroy Beach. Lots of surfers. 2 hours later, a breeze made it cold, the water was choppy and the surfers were gone.

Coastal Walkway

 

Drawing and painting on the Coastal Walkway in New Plymouth. 

The White Hart Hotel

 Rejuvinated  1886 White Hart Hotel next to the clocktower - where the infamous Highwayman made a robbery (and had a drink), was a hospital for the Redcoats,  and home to gangs, bands and punks

https://www.westendprecinct.nz/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/White-Hart-Hotel.jpg

 

Today's new The Good Home Rooftop Bar

Port Taranaki Boat Ramp

I had a sheltered spot out of the winter breeze at Port Taranaki. Exposed people were still launching boats and walking to the end of the breakwater.

Iona Dairy

In New Plymouth, the Iona Dairy has a reputation of reasonably generous scoops of ice cream. So after a bit of drawing and painting, we decided to go for a taste test. What do you think?

This one was actually done a few weeks ago. You know... before the world was put on Pause. Looking forward to getting back to normal things like dairy product research again. In the meantime, I'll be drawing and painting (and snacking) around our house.

Americarna 2020 - More Bel Airs

At this year's Americarna, I ignored the new cars and went with a classic car to sketch. This is a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air. A great car in a design variant before they started to get very ugly in the 60's and 70's. I also did this one standing up so it gives it a slightly different angle than usual. There is another quick drawing from a couple days before when they stopped in Waitara. I've never gone out to see the cars when they stop at the smaller towns. I'm not sure if each of the small stops get ALL the cars, there were still tons and it's quite a nice vibe to see Americarna outside New Plymouth.

North Egmont Farm

A magnificent view of Maunga Taranaki from North Egmont could be seen close up at this Dairy Farm.  A couple of us had an expedition out to the farm today.

Some Friesian crosses waiting to be milked - I should have bottled the odour to share with you., The ear tags were most colourful.  Also this farm vehicle parked up ready to go.

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.

Ngamotu Engine

It's been a while since I'd been to the Taranaki Aviation Technology and Transport Museum. While I was there, they fired up an engine from a ship used to dredge sand from the seaport. The sign said that it ran at about 100rpm on the ship but when I was there, in the museum, it was much slower than that. (Maybe 10-20%?) At that speed, it was making this sound that was like it was breathing. It was so hypnotic that I ended up sitting down and sketching it.

I made a 60-second video, if you want to hear the breathing sound:

I'm looking for a winter sketching venue so maybe I'll be back periodically.