25 Feb 2014

Public sketching Day 2

This week we had our second public sketching day as part of our exhibition. It seems hard to believe it's almost finished! A group of us went down onto the walkway. I liked the look of these fishermen.




Here's Claire's picture:


16 Feb 2014

Egmont Village

The famous bike fence, once belonging to THE MISSING LEG LODGE


Tonto, the painted horse was road-side grazing up Egmont Road towards the mountain

Speaking of painted, I've probably given the bikes a lick of paint in my sketch. Rust was taking its toll.

15 Feb 2014

Egmont Road.

Today we met in Egmont Village and then went where inspiration took us!

I decided to try a sketch of Mount Taranaki. I find this Mountain extremely challenging to draw. Today it was partially under cloud.

Here is my first attempt:

I then carried on further up the road and had a second attempt:


This one was quite moody as I was almost up under the cloud. The light kept shifting, and the clouds kept changing. So I tried to work very quickly and just get an impression of colour.

Here is a photo of Mount Taranaki. This one was taken from Waitara. It is a lot further away than when I was sketching it on Egmont Road.



8 Feb 2014

The Old New Plymouth Savings Bank

The city branch of the TSB Bank was closed on Friday  4th October 2013 and is unlikely to reopen.
The 83-year-old building has undergone an engineer's seismic assessment and has been declared an earthquake risk.
The TSB Bank board of directors met and made the decision to close the building as soon as possible.
A newspaper article said:
"It was a difficult decision to make. But for the safety and well-being of our people and city branch customers, it is the right decision," TSB managing director Kevin Murphy said.
The building, which has a category two rating from the Historical Places Trust, is owned by the TSB Bank, which was founded as the New Plymouth Savings Bank in 1850.

This building has now come on the property market. So who knows what will happen to it next. I decided a sketch was in order to act as a record of this beautiful old building. I always loved to go into it.

Ironically we have had many earthquakes during this building's lifetime, some of them quite large. To date nothing has fallen down or injured anyone!

6 Feb 2014

Strya Visit

A kangaroo hop across the Tasman yielded the following (midst 40+C heat)

 
 
 
Hopefully you know what
 

Our bobbing home away from home - West Gate Bridge out the port hole

Gippsland Lakes
 
Gippsland Pub
 
Ned Kelly country
 
My cousins London Hotel
 
Back of Flinders St Station
 
 Gold of the Incas exhibition
 
 Canberra Deep space complex
 
National Gallery of Australia
 
Sand sculpture - Frankston - Story theme (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)
 
 
 

2 Feb 2014

February Exhibition: Come and Sketch with Us!

As part of our exhibition we thought it might be fun for you to join us and sketch with us! This is not a workshop, but just for fun. We are happy to give you tips along the way such as they are!

Public sketching days:
 
8th and 22nd February 1.30pm -3.00pm
  • Come meet us at the Real TART Gallery and sketch with us for an afternoon.
  • Meet us there at 1.30pm and we will either sketch at the gallery or in the surrounding area depending on the weather.
  • Bring your sketch gear with you. This can be as simple or as complicated as you wish, e.g. biro and sketchbook, pencil, watercolour kit, pen, aquarelles etc. So long as it is easy to carry, (some sketchers bring a fold-up chair).
  • Dress for the weather, e.g sunhat with a good brim, warm jacket, umbrella? (Yes we've done it)!
Real TART will be advertising these soon. Hopefully we'll see you then,
Jackie.

Here's one of my paintings in the exhibition. We'd love you to go and have have a look at the rest!


1 Feb 2014

Devon Street Sidewalk

One last one from January. Warm summers days with bright day sunlight. I usually like to find some place in the shade to draw during these months. Devon Street, with the storefront overhangs and rows of trees is always appealing. As I looked down the sidewalk, I was trying to draw the very bright sunny bits and the oasis-like shady bits. I really wanted this to be a drawing of shade, I guess.