Hard Helmet Diving Suit

New Zealand's had a lot of rain last weekend with quite a few places becoming flooded. Even with the rising levels of the Huatoki Stream beside it, one of the most dry places in Taranaki for sketching was in the museum in New Plymouth. I started to draw this 1950's hard helmet diving suit since I found it interesting and I was amazed that it was still used until the late 1960's. When I finished this drawing, I wondered if the staff might have to use it soon. It's supposed to rain again this weekend.

Radio Hill in Blagdon

From the Access Radio Taranaki broadcast tower hill in New Plymouth, you can see the Blagdon shops and the horizon line goes out to sea. It's a bit weird that this hill has cows grazing around it in the middle of houses. An oasis of rural in suburbia. A few years ago I drew the front of the shops and the hill and the radio towers are in the background. I'm still amazed that the convenience store is still open beside the 4 Square (which is a chain of small grocery stores). It seemed like poor planning having a shop that sells the same kind of stuff (but with less group wholesale buying power), open roughly the same hours, and with less product selection. Yet years later, it still exists. I wonder if there is a secret.

Fair May at the Mayfair

A welcome break in the rain today... It was the sunniest day in recent memory and I had the day off. Having drinks outside and sketching! (A shout-out to the staff of the Mayfair in New Plymouth for being generally awesome.)

ANZAC Dawn Ceremony in New Plymouth

The ANZAC Day Dawn Ceremony commemorates the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) World War One dawn landing in Gallipoli. This was the start of a large joint campaign (in what is now Turkey) that lasted the good part of a year. In the end, it was a bit of a stalemate but there are probably tons of stories from the Great War that involved sacrifice without much progress made. Today, ANZAC Day is a day honouring people that played a part in all the wars like a North American Remembrance Day. 2015 was the 100 year anniversary of the ANZAC troops in Gallipoli so it became a big deal in the media. As a result, lots of people assembled at memorials all over Australia and New Zealand. This morning, just before dawn, New Plymouth also had a large turnout and I came away with a night sketch.

St Andrew's Syndrome

In 2009, St Andrew's was the location of the first ever Taranaki Sketchers sketchcrawl. (This was back when the group was just Scott and Paul!) Due to the misleading and deceptive height of the tower, it was found to be difficult to fit the building to a page without cutting off the top or distorting and shrinking the overall drawing. Since then, if a local sketcher can't fit a subject on a page or squishes the image to contain it, it is said around here that the drawing may be suffering from St Andrew's Syndrome.
I don't believe that I've given the original location a try yet, so when we were invited by the church to draw their home, I was curious to see if I would experience the phenomenon. It turned out that the affliction started to develop! I cured it by constantly turning pages. What you see here is a completed fifth start.

Fernery in Pukekura Park

A good place to practice drawing plants of all type is in Pukekura Park's Fernery. Didn't know about the weather last weekend so felt safe inside the glass roof.

Chaos in town on WOMAD Weekend

New Plymouth was pretty busy on WOMAD weekend. Lots of world music fans from all over came to town to see the festival. In all fairness though, the people of Taranaki love their cooked breakfasts and coffees and this cafe is chaos EVERY weekend.

Fresh Prints of Bel Airs

Americarna, the American Car Festival was in New Plymouth last weekend. Again, the CBD was closed down and became a classic car show. Angela and I found a shady bit with a view between two blocks of cars. Half way through our drawings, we realized that we were drawing the same type of car... a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air! 

(Car Nerd Info: The 2nd car behind my Bel Air is a 1960 Chevrolet Impala.)

Starting a kete

Our local group went to sketch a traditional Māori weaving workshop at Te Wānanga O Aotearoa Rangiātea. To others not from New Zealand, this is the art of weaving flax fibres into objects such as a pouch, basket (kete) or even clothing. Also, what is known as flax here is not the common Northern hemisphere variety that is known as linseed which is used for its seeds, oil or fibres to make linen. The New Zealand flax grown here is known for its long and firm stringy leaves. In the past, ropes of NZ flax were used on ships and were the strongest that you could get... but back to the weaving!
Māori weaving is traditionally a passed-down skill but these days is often taught in classes. It really is an art and getting together to prepare the long fibres with family and friends is very social. The group of people weaving were catching up and talking about their classes. To pass a high level qualification, one has to tightly weave a number of containers that hold water. Everyone weaving all quickly agreed that while it can be done, it is quite difficult.

Three of a kind

Another hot day in Taranaki avoiding sunburn under a tree and looking out to sea. The three large buildings in the mid-ground are on the same city block. I've always felt like they are related somehow and mentally group them together. Although totally unrelated in usage and architecture, I still to want to group them somehow.
When I finished this one I remembered another drawing I did in 2011 of the same three. Again, drawn together and framed in the same type of tree too. Included below are the original, before digital colouring, and the previous 2011 red pen of the same buildings.

Not summer yet

The weather lately has been shocking and more rain for this weekend too. People dressing down to battle the elements.

Rainy Weather Sketching

The local sketchers made the call to sketch inside on this soggy morning so I've been practicing drawing plants today. 

(This is in the Fernery at Pukekura Park.)