Art Deco Weekend - Napier - New Zealand

I love to go out and about with my camera on Art Deco Weekend in Napier, New Zealand each year. It is a looong weekend of Art Deco everything celebrating the Art Deco architecture abounding in our city. This abundance was because the 1931 Napier earthquake destroyed our city and the city was rebuilt in the style of the times. The streets are filled with activities and dressed up people. Here is an example of what goes on:

I promise I will get back to posting some art on my blog soon!!!

Pukeora photos

I love taking photos since I got a digital camera! It is just so easy! You can take as many photos as you like without the worry of wasting the film. I have had many artist's dates with my camera since I got it.

These are a few photos from a trip to a wonderful festival held at the old Pukeora Estate on the San Hill behind Waipukurau in the Hawkes Bay of New Zealand. The old Sanatorium was first built to care for the soldiers returning from World War 1, later it became a Tuberculosis Sanatorium. In the late 1950s it was redeveloped as a home for the disabled and physically handicapped. The hospital was closed in 1998 and the property is now used as a vineyard, winery and function center with accommodation.

The old hospital feel to the buildings is eerie and the perfect location for the Festival. I took many many photos while I was there. Here is a tiny sampling.

artist date with the frost

I am currently working through Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" with a Yahoo group I belong to called "Blissfully Art Journaling" and I consider that my little trip out into our recent chilling frosts with my digital camera to be my artist's date for the week.

Here is the result of my little photographic jaunt out early on a frosty morning.

Lake Opouahi

The other week my friend and I and our kids went on a trip up North of Napier towards Wairoa to a reserve at Lake Opouahi. There was a gorgeous reserve called "kiwi creche" which has been fenced off as a nature reserve for raising kiwis. I took over a hundred photos (thank goodness for digital cameras!) although only some of them have captured what my eyes actually saw. The nice easy track around the lake was a mossy green tangle of nature that was a joy to explore. We even took sketch pads with us to do a little art. Didn't really have enough time to relax and draw, but below is the sketch that I started there and finished at home.

The feeling of damp and beauty that I was looking for in this drawing is better felt from this beautiful scrap of prose I stumbled on thanks to a comment left behind by the author "Spot".

http://inkhaven.blogspot.com/2008/06/like-runaway-tattoo.html

I urge you to follow the link and experience it for yourself!

I will post a couple of the photos too to give you an idea of the little piece of artist's heaven that Lake Opouahi is!

The next image is a little different but it was a photo I took under a ledge of droplets of water that just begged for a little digital magic! Enjoy!!