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...
So there we were last Saturday, one week out from Christmas at the last 'Big Draw' sketch meet of the year. We met at the Waikumete Cemetery.
It's weird but it was my suggestion we came to sketch here in the Southern Hemisphere's largest cemetery a few weeks earlier. I thought 'It'll be cool, we can draw all the historic cemetery stuff, the chapel, the mausoleums etc, it will be really interesting and we'll get to visit my grandparents grave as a bonus'.
As it happens though, not one, but two of my good mates died last week. Two of the most generous guys I know and both extremely funny blokes. Paddy, of melanoma and Dan of cancer.
What a shithouse week, and what a weird, weird place to finish it.
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