Bruce's Dairy

Bruce's Dairy - A corner store that is on a corner and beside a roundabout. This seems like a pretty good location to me. It had a steady flow of traffic but I didn't draw any cars today since there weren't any that stayed long enough.
While I drew this building, I witnessed the death of a car. It looked like it had overheated. I could hear the mobile serviceman informing the owners that it would take more to fix the car than they had originally paid for it. I watched them all leave soon after. The owners came back with a rental car and loaded all of their belongings into it. After they drove away, a tilt-bed truck later came for the body. It reminded me of the time that my car died. It was in the middle of nowhere and that was reasonably difficult to sort out. Now this car, coming to a stop here (or just to the left of my sketch actually) is in town and right across the street from a place that sells pretty much everything.

Devon Street in New Plymouth

Here is some more downtown sketching in New Plymouth done about two weeks apart. Devon Street would be the main retail shopping street and this intersection at Currie Street is, in a way, the centre of town. This divides Devon Street East and Devon Street West and the address numbering increases in both directions, starting from this corner. The centre of town!

This next one took about a week of lunches to finish. A nice shady spot on Devon Street West about three or four buildings down the street from the other drawing's point of view. You might be able to figure out which building this is in the other drawing too. (Hint: The tallest one.)

Pukekura Railway

The New Plymouth Society of Model & Experimental Engineers offered rides on miniature coal-powered steam engines for a dollar. 'Pukekura Railway' (as it is named) is a small double loop track in central New Plymouth. From a distance, these tiny trains seem like toys but they are actually pretty cool (and reasonably powerful) little engines.

Devon Street - October 2012

Just an older building on the main shopping street here in New Plymouth. I have a feeling that I may end up colouring this one since I took my time on this one and that the building in the centre is a bright red colour.

New Zealand Villas

New Zealand has quite a few wooden houses that are nearly 100 years old. The 'villa', as they are called, is a single-floor bungalow, made of local timber, and have dashes of ornamental details. The house that I live in is about 90 years old and has decorative plaster ceilings (another common villa characteristic) in nearly every room. Every now and then one of them disappears and is replaced by the new and modern.

24-hour Booksale

The annual 24-hour charity booksale. Everyone here is browsing though a stadium full of donated books. This is a sketch of the final hour where either the procrastinators or the penny-pinchers are here to get a deal. In the final minutes, the speaker kept announcing better and better deals as I was drawing in an attempt to move the large hoard of books.

(I've always been curious to know what type of person comes out at, say, 3.00am to look at books, but I'll never know - I'm not that type of person.)

Morley and St Aubyn Streets

This is a pretty cool older building on the corner of Morley and St Aubyn Streets is now home to a florist. I liked the surplus of signs in the one area (including four 'Stop's).

At the Govett-Brewster

Whenever I sketch inside the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, my drawings look a bit strange. Images of a surreal dream. Looking over a half-wall to a lower floor was a rotating mobile sculpture made of steel, lit brightly from one side and casting a shadow on a grey wall. In front of that was a video projected onto a hanging panel. I could imagine that if I didn't describe the scene a bit more you would be wondering what you are looking at.

The next two were from a different show at the same gallery, about one year earlier. One was an overhead view of some visitors watching a group of musicians interpret the different pieces. The other is another strange drawing of the result.

Peggy Gordons

This weekend, with the Taranaki Sketchers, the location was Peggy Gordon's Irish Pub. This isn't the first time sketching here. I've been here before. Strangely enough, I've never drawn the outside of the place.

Washers

I was sitting on the steps of St Andrew's Church in New Plymouth on the corner of Courtenay and Liardet Streets. I was watching the receding busy one-way traffic, the fire fighters in the hall across the street and paying attention to the details of the traffic lights as I sketched. The 'squeegee bandits' were out on the corner as well. These are a group of young people who are making a bit of cash by washing windows at red lights. There is a bit of controversy about this right now. It's in the newspaper occasionally and they may or may not be allowed to continue due to complaints. From what I was observing, they are generally polite with everyone and have no problem if you don't want a wash. Ironically, the only public menace on that corner was the van of teenagers driving around the block over and over again, yelling at them to 'get a life'.

The Arizona

The Arizona. A local greasy food seller open Wednesdays to Saturdays. Hours vary but are from 3pm to 4-5am. This implies that it is catering to a certain demographic of people that like to come into town in the evenings. The sign says, "... since 1965" so there certainly has been a market for this kind of place for some time now.

Alleyways

I like alleys (that aren't too scary). They make an urban environment more pedestrian and the finding of a secret shortcut satisfies the explorer in me.