This month's sketches

Around and About

Spencer (grandson, 5) and I have gone sketching together on a couple of occasions recently. The weather has been sunny and almost windless for several months this autumn, and sketching outside has been fun.

The other day we were sitting in the back yard with our pencils and paper, and here is my attempt at what Spencer called: "Those four balls", in fact he did the arrangement for me to draw. The smallest one needs some repainting!

Today I was down town for a meeting and before walking home I sat on a rubbishbin outside the Bus Terminal and sketched a couple of older buildings in Egmont Street. The wooden building on the right was for many years the home of the RSA here and since then has served as headquarters for the City Life Church.

The concrete building was originally the home of Hooker Bros, the transport company, but it is best known now for Frederic's Restaurant, named for Frederic Carrington, the original surveyor who chose the site of the European settlement here and drew up the plans for the central part of the city.

Our Sketching Group for U3A has recently been visiting the Te Rewarewa Bridge, where I chose on one occasion to concentrate on the harakeke which were then in flower.

Another day I sat at Macdonalds and sketched the building just across the street. It is known to everyone as the Perry Dines Building. For many years it was the home of Massey University for Taranaki, but a few years ago it was deemed an earthquake risk (it is the same construction as the PVC Building in Christchurch), so it has lain empty waiting for demolition.

On the first Sunday morning of the month we have a seaside market at Ngamotu Beach.

While Margaret was examining some of the stalls, I captured this quick impression of one of the streets.

A musician was entertaining us all in the first tent, and above us the sky showed one or two darker clouds.




Finally, a side-on shot of the Te Rewarewa Bridge, soft pencil and charcoal, This is a much easier angle to catch than the end-on view, because there are no straight lines in this bridge! Hundertwasser would have loved it!