The sketch above was made in down-town Paihia, it doesn't look it, but it is literally behind the main street. The view is the back of an old homestead called Williams House. I was attracted by the orchard of very old fig trees on the left that had me imagining eating juicy ripe figs. Sadly they weren't in season but it must be a fun place at harvest time.
Right over the other side of the bay you will find his falling down old house on Matauwhi Bay. For a while there the water had a turquoise glow until the sun went into hiding.
This is Pompallier House and Clendon Cottage in Russell sketched with my back to the sea. I may have used a little too much artistic licence in moving them close enough together to fit on my page so don't look too closely.
Anyway, I have sketched Pompallier House previously. Read the post from 2014 here. On that trip we took the kids on a full guided tour of the area. They were fascinated with the display of desiccated rats in the rammed earth wall of Pompallier House (left), as well as the printing press, how it was transported from france, how it worked, the tannery etc.
Nice to have a bit more time to sketch this time although I did miss their youthful enthusiasm! The Wellington Sea Shanty Society were warming up down the road at the Duke of Marlborough hotel which in a way suits Russell/Kororāreka and its history as the ‘Hell hole of the Pacific’ full of drunken sailors and whalers perfectly.
It was a pleasure to paint this view from Okiato toward Paihia as the sun came up behind me, lighting the kanuka, tī kouka and kauri trees on the right while wekas called to each other across the valley and tūī playfully dive bombed each other in the bush below. I should have painted a couple of tūīs somewhere on this!
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