Occasionally Auckland Sketchbook escapes the city to somewhere interesting — and close. This time the sketchbook got a workout in The Bay of Islands . Only 3.5 hours by car and a world away from work. 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 Po...
It's our third year camping up at Pataua. The place just doesn't get boring, each year I seem to find new things to sketch. This year I had the Moleskine landscape watercolour book from the Singapore Symposium. It's great to sketch in, the heavyweight watercolour paper soaks up miles of colour and the landscape format works really well for widescreen beach sketches like these.
Cyclone Victor passed us by early in the week leaving us with some pretty large surf. It was fun getting blasted by the big waves and watching boogie boarders 'going over the falls' time and again, but they seemed to come up smiling every time.
There was no way I was going to try and catch such big waves on the paddleboard, so we spent a lot of time paddling up the estuary disturbing the odd stingray visible in the clear water, jumping off the bridge and platform. A harvest session picking pipis and cockles gave us a tasty lunch one day.
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