Spring in Auckland

I was hoping to post some warm, bright spring sketches from the southern hemisphere in response to recent autumn sketch posts. Sadly though spring in Auckland is a precarious beast, both warm and cold, windy and wet, and often all more than once in the same day.

I’ve been sketching yachts being repaired up on the hard. Auckland’s yards and marinas are a hive of activity at this time of year with hulls being scraped down and fresh anti-fouling slapped on in preparation for the summer season. Owners are flat out sanding and painting.

Some yacht owners obviously have a lot more to do than others!

And a visit to this years Sculpture Onshore exhibit, an outdoor show perched on a cliff with a view over the Hauraki Gulf. I captured Richard Wedekind’s sculpture ‘Buoys – straining against the tide’ standing guard while a couple of Americas Cup yachts sail by.

And finally an aborted BBQ sketch. No one likes a soggy snarler so when the first barbie of the season was abandoned in order to save the dinner I turned back to find the colour rinsing of my page in the rain!