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New Plymouth New Zealand [RESULTS] under the mountain

Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 8:43 am
by thetaranakisketchers
The sun peeked over the dateline to shine on New Zealand, giving us a gorgeous, still, autumn sketching day.

The Waitara Railway Preservation Society is located on the 126 year old Lepperton Junction to Waitara line. The kindly staff welcomed, inducted, fed us a cuppa tea and piklets, gave us fluro jackets and let us loose.
Interestingly the Nak Ticket office was used in Tom Cruise's 'The Last Samurai' filmed in our province back in 2000

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Scott - The workers and a team of PDs (Periodic Detention Workers) had smoko next to the DSM Engine. Both were interested in our sketching activity.

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Smoko is over

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Brian sketching

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Trevor - platform view

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Crusty old tank cars

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Trevor

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Trevor sketching

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Scott - a quick biscuit for smoko

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Brian and Jackie sketching

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Scott - low view of engine

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Cutting a thread

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Trevor - by the carriage

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'Show and Tell' refueling at the Beach House Cafe at the Waitara River mouth

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We leave our hasty, scribbled calling card

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To the famous marae at the top of the hill

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Trevor - gate post of entrance

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Scott using his Tombows

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You can tell the carvings are from our area - due to the serpentine bodies, the pointy heads (some say influenced by the symetric shape of our dormant volcano), and the pu-werewere decorative flicks - like a spiderweb.
The eyes are made of paua shell. Like abolone but more colourful - turquoises and pinks, and may be found along our coastline. In the early days the carvings were coated with ochre (from the mountain) mixed with shark oil.

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Gate Entrance

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Carving down in the town

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Scott - quick rendering

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Brian doing a street scene

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Trevor amongst the nikau palms

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Trevor - andesite rock carving & nikaus

More from the others to follow

Re: New Plymouth New Zealand [RESULTS] under the mountain

Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 8:59 am
by alissa
wow - it looks like you had a great day. What an opportunity you were given and some wonderful sketches.

Re: New Plymouth New Zealand [RESULTS] under the mountain

Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 10:59 am
by borrominibear
fantastic - great sketches and subjects! looks like an amazing day!

Liz

Re: New Plymouth New Zealand [RESULTS] under the mountain

Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 12:00 pm
by JJ Bell
What fabulous sketches!!! Well done guys!

Re: New Plymouth New Zealand [RESULTS] under the mountain

Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 12:32 pm
by CyberDave
Good morning folk... :wave:

You have all done marvelously. Fantastic sketches. :thumbup: :thumbup:
Still groggy this morning. I have not quite woken up yet.......groan [dave rolls over in bed] :crazy:
I'll come back for a visit to your postings after I have done my crawl..

Cheers
Dave

Re: New Plymouth New Zealand [RESULTS] under the mountain

Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 4:15 pm
by Front Room Art
These are wonderful watercolours! And it's so nice to see the photos along with the sketches. Well done, guys. We had a dismal turnout - will post photos tomorrow (22nd). Regards from Africa...

Re: New Plymouth New Zealand [RESULTS] under the mountain

Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 6:20 pm
by Francis
What a great place to draw and good results, congratulations ..
Francis
www.franciscogomezjarillo.com

Re: New Plymouth New Zealand [RESULTS] under the mountain

Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 10:35 pm
by jackie.flynn
We had a great day sketching yesterday. I only managed the morning and lunch. We had an interesting morning at the Waitara Rail Preservation Society. I particularly liked the Former Tahora Station.
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Here's Trevor Sketching.
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And the trains.
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Here are the guys working on a train.
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And the PD, (Periodic Detention), workers.
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Thanks for a great day guys! :clap:

Re: New Plymouth New Zealand [RESULTS] under the mountain

Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 10:44 pm
by TETSU
These are very wonderful sketches!
Especially I love the sketch of thetaranakisketchers's trains. :thumbup:

Re: New Plymouth New Zealand [RESULTS] under the mountain

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:17 am
by Morrys
I love the trains as location, that's really special! and the results about the gate are really pretty as well!

Re: New Plymouth New Zealand [RESULTS] under the mountain

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:39 am
by quirkyartist
What great places to sketch. That first train with the yellow and blue-violet is nearly coming off the page at you. Wow.

Re: New Plymouth New Zealand [RESULTS] under the mountain

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 4:41 am
by thetaranakisketchers
Thanks for your encouragement Australia, Canada, Spain, Japan and Africa and we are enjoying looking at yours too.
We did have a particularly pleasant time at our sketching locations.

Waitara is 15km north of New Plymouth and is the name of both the town and the river. The name 'Wai' means water, so it translates as mountain stream. Population 6500.

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This is the Manukorihi Pa, with Mt Taranaki (Mt Egmont) in the background, The Pa and marae is beyond the gates we drew

This is where we are located on the North Island
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Re: New Plymouth New Zealand [RESULTS] under the mountain

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 4:50 am
by gnyp
Here are my sketches from the day:
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Starting off fresh, I went straight into a high detail one. This is, I believe, to be a 1950's train engine.
Then, running out of time and almost time for a lunchtime meetup, I did one more of the railyard:
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After that, we sketched the outside of the Marae in Waitara. These carvings can be described as New Zealand totem poles.
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Before heading home to New Plymouth, the 'survivors' did 'one more for the road'. I sort of chose this one since the building is slightly old timey. More importantly, I chose this one for the novelty of being able to rent a movie and get takeaways (take-out fast food) at the same place. With digital downloads taking over, this will never catch on, but how come this wasn't totally normal and common, say 10 or 20 years ago?
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Re: New Plymouth New Zealand [RESULTS] under the mountain

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 6:59 am
by enrico
Wow!!! Beautiful!!!!
:thumbup:
E

Re: New Plymouth New Zealand [RESULTS] under the mountain

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 4:50 pm
by Miki
Brilliant sketching which made me nostalgic as only returned from NZ a month ago having spent 7 weeks on N And S islands. Yes, I did do some sketching but not a patch on yours! Spent first night in camper at Arthurs Pass and counted 5 engines on a goods train! Your sketches and photos of the trains made me wish I could have been there with you yesterday. Thanks for sharing them and thanks to all N Z people who made us so welcome.