That Weekend in Kaponga

Over two years ago, I helped put together a catalogue for a "Complete Dispersal" cow sale (A Cattle-Og). When completed, I was invited to the event. It was in a very small town in South Taranaki. Several generations of award-winning breeding came to an end and was to be sold off entirely. It was way busier than expected and was broadcast live to the food barn and the internet for international bidders. 

It was actually quite a big deal and we spent the weekend down there sketching the sale and the town. Instead of posting them online as usual, I put them aside. In 2020, I put them all together and digitally painted (coloured) the cow sale sketches. The final piece was 1x1 metre and was entered into the 'Homework' art show at the New Plymouth museum, Puke Ariki. It was chosen and is still there until the 8th of February. 

After the Covid lockdown in New Zealand, I think that lots of people forgot that they can go out to see art shows and stuff like that again. If you're in New Plymouth over the holiday period, you should check it out.

Palm tree in the rain

In July, I drew our palm tree in the rain. This week, I added some colour to it.

Pukekura Park

Drawing and painting the lake in Pukekura Park. I put another layer of pen after the watercolours (that is not shown in the video.)

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.

Galaxian

Back in the very early 80's, you could not play video games at home. Instead, tall machines, that could each play one type of game only, packed video arcades. They had awesome artwork on the sides to make up for the prehistoric graphics. I've always loved the retro-future artwork on Galaxian. (Someone should make a video game NOW, using that illustration. The robot insect aliens, future cities, and a split in half moon would make a great game.)

Coleco had the idea of making small electronic games that were similar to the stand-up full-sized games. Although not the same, they played in a similar enough way that made them quite popular. The TV ad showed a fantastic 'Mr. Arcade' that was (magically?) shrinking the different games for the addicted kids so that they could play them at home.

I made a video that shows a Galaxian arcade game and the (poor quality, yet awesome) TV commercial.

(You can also see this game in my previous sketch of my computer desk.)

Paul Spooner

More coronavirus artwork. I was looking at the videos that I had on my phone for things to draw. This video is of an automata artwork titled, “How to live No. 17 - Spaghetti”. I loved this whole show at the local museum and I REALLY love spaghetti. The artist, Paul Spooner, had a number of things in the travelling exhibition but this one stood out to me. I liked how generally weird it is, the flowing swirls of sauce from the taps, and especially, the subtle chew motion after the character takes a bite.

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.

Sea Creatures

Our local library has an art competition to collect some art for some printed bookmarks for every year. Usually, it's just for kids but this year they decided to try an adult (tall kid) category. The four themes to choose from were: Whānau (family), Steampunk, Sea Creatures or Play. During the awards it was mentioned that the Steampunk category was quite popular but it just didn't produce any winning entries.

I chose the Sea Creatures theme and mine was selected. Normally I draw from life but for the two snappers I used some photos, and for the octopus I watched a National Geographic YouTube video a number of times as I sketched.

It was great to see the other winners. These kids are way better artists than I was at that age.

East End

I had the opportunity to sketch off the deck of someone who overlooks the East End beach and reserve. There's still a horse paddock on the other side of the tracks so it seems like we're in the country. If you were to look to the sides, you'd see that it was pretty suburban, but on a day like that, I just kept looking at the water.

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.

Te Henui

The very rare sunny winter day off. What a beauty! I have to give credit to Maurice for the idea to come down to Te Henui stream to draw and paint. I could have happily sat there all day and sketched.

Pukekura Park

A few months ago I was sitting on the steps of the band rotunda in Pukekura Park sketching. I started to watercolour it there but ran out of time about half-way through. I took it home and put it aside. Now that we're having a rainy week I took this pad back out to finish it and here we are.

Ngamotu Beach

Quick watercolour sketch of Ngamotu Beach at low tide.

Colourize Project: Railway Walkway

Here's another sketch from three years ago that I've added to my 'Colourize Project' where I take old sketches and give them the colour treatment. This was sketched a couple weeks before the Christmas holiday and wrote this:
"This is an old railway line with a pretty cool stone wall that runs between two busy streets in New Plymouth. Now it's just for people. On each side of this thin park is crazy traffic caused by crazy people, desperate to finish their year-end chores. Everyone is so rushed here in New Zealand at this time of year. A Christmas / Summer combo holiday makes people insane, irrational and very tired. The big solid rock walls insulated against the noise and was a nice lunch hour time-out from the frenzied late-December pace."

Huatoki eels

I decided that I wasn't done with the Huatoki Plaza so I did a watercolour sketch of the people feeding the eels that live the Huatoki stream. Most people that cross the pedestrian bridge like to stop and have a look over the edge to see how huge and freaky these things are looking today.

(The 2nd half of the video looks a bit strange with the walkway and the sky reflection; it's like the eels are in the sky or something.)

Huatoki Plaza

Huatoki Plaza was a retail building that was removed to expose the covered stream beneath it. New Plymouth made a reasonably boring urban space for people to ignore. One day, an artist put up a paste-up image of a face to try to make it better. It probably did because these days, the Plaza has several artists' work on various buildings that face it. I've sketched one of the buildings a few times and currently has artwork by Phil 'Suspect' Jones and his studio is actually in the Plaza and his murals are all around town.

Salmon Building

I only see this place in winter even though it's painted a bright salmon orange. The plants and moss growing on the side of it camouflage it into the fresh spring leaves. I did this one in September and the building's already starting to disappear among the trees.

Waitara Whitebait

Whitebait fishing means lots of big nets and tiny fish. It sounds like cheating if you say it that way.

Hong Kong Fast Food

A couple of sketches ago I posted the Broadway Fast Food in Stratford. Today, I'm bringing you the Hong Kong Fast Food from New Plymouth. I don't know why it's called that really. They specialise in meat and potato roast dinners. (Just like the ones you can get in Hong Kong?)

New Plymouth Coastal Walkway

"...and at the first sign of sun, the urban sketcher leaves his studio of hibernation to once again draw and paint the world." (It seems bit early for weather this nice, but I'll take it.)