The Artist's News

   Here is my March Newsletter about what I've been up to and my latest work. I still don't have a good camera, saving for it though, so the photos arn't always the best. But the drawings I was able to scan.

March Newsletter

Field Hut, Tararua Ranges New Zealand

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Art of a Hut Tramp the First

   Hello! I'm back from my first Art of a Hut adventure. Caleb, Thomas and I spent three weeks tramping through the Kaimai and Urewera ranges. I did a lot of drawing and spent just as much time walking. I'm heaps fitter now, after the first week or so I was quite tired, but I quickly go used to it all.

Here is a link to my newsletter in which I've written a summery of how it all went along with some photos.

The Art of a Hut Newletter

  Here is a sample of sketches from my sketchbook which I took on the trip:

  Daly's Clearing Hut was the first hut we stayed at. It is at the top of the Kaimais. I really enjoyed the time we spent there the weather was beautiful. We visited the huge kauri trees nearby and swam in the river. And this is where I ate possum for the first time! Was really nice too, tasted like butter chicken!

   It was the weekend so on the second night we were there the hut was full of people. Several groups came and people were sleeping on the deck because there was no more room in the hut. Here we met a guy called Matthew who was training for a long endurance running race in the Sahara Desert. He showed us some useful map and compass skills which proved to be very helpful later on.

This is  a hut which we passed on the way to another hut. I began the drawing on the walk in, but it began to rain so I packed up and we walked on the next hut where we stayed. On the walk out again I stopped to finish the sketch. Thomas ran from there all the way back to the car to begin cooking the rice for lunch. On walking days time was precious because we had to walk all the way out from one hut, drive to the next carpark and walk all the way into the next hut and we never knew exactly how long that would take. On this day we didn't get to the next hut until 11:30 that night. Little did I know that as I sat on the damp grass sketching Skip's Hut.

   Several of the tracks to hut followed rivers or streams. Te Totara Hut was built right beside a river and I took the opportunity of practicing drawing water, rather tricky using a pen, but I learnt a thing or two.

Caleb did a lot of fishing for trout. But they were all pretty cleaver creatures and eluded his hook. Except for this one which we ate for dinner. 

  We would often read, write or draw by candle light in the evenings. I drew this on the last night we spent in a hut. We had ginger biscuits most evenings with our black tea. We looked forward to this and always made the most of our rations. I thought I would record the last ginger biscuit I had. We finished of our rations seeing as it was the last night.

It is really good to be home again and I've enjoyed Christmas with my family. 

It hasn't all been a jolly holiday though. Lady, the horse I've been training and hoping to sell cut open her leg on Christmas Eve and had to have seventeen stitches in to sew her up. So I'm busy looking after her and trying to keep her from moving too much. She should heal in a month or more and wont be lame at all, thankfully. 

Getting stitched up by the vet.

Last Update before Christmas!

So, I'm all ready to go. All I have to do now is write this post and then I can sleep so I can wake up early tomorrow to leave. I'm all packed, but the food situation still looks like this:

This is before grocery shopping for the trip, most of it is the remains of Caleb's possum trapping trip. We did lot's of baking today so the tins are full of hearty musili bar like biscuits which will keep us going on our long walks. Our staple diet will be rice, that's alright, I like rice! Caleb assures me possum is really good to eat, I'm not so sure. Possum is one of the worst smells! But I'm willing to try it! Hopefully he will be able to catch us more appetizing meat like venison, rabbit and trout. He has all his fishing and hunting permits already sorted out for that. We shall see how plentiful the game is, and I'll let you know when I come back for Christmas...

All my drawing supplies have been packed. My paper is stored in a plastic folder for the car, and when we go tramping to the huts I will roll up as much sheets as I will need into the black tube to carry it in. I have a drawing board which Caleb drilled some holes into today so that we can strap it onto a pack. I will mask paper to that for drawing, then roll it up again into the tube once I have finished drawing a hut. 

 

I also have some sketchbooks to fill up. And I was given a very cute watercolour set and tiny moleskin sketchbook which I shall enjoy using. I have restarted my drawing every day challenge. I never did complete my challenge to draw every day the year I was 20. I got up to day 199 and then from then on it dwindled away, mostly because of the hut drawing project which majorly distracted me. But I began the challenge again the day after my 21st birthday last Friday the 15th. This time I think I have more of a chance to complete it and draw every day I'm 21. I know what I'm in for now, and I'm more focused on drawing now. Also, I have begun it in an A4 sketchbook and shall complete a series of them this year. It will be easier than just drawing on loose sheets of paper like I was doing originally. 

Here are the first two pages of my sketchbook for drawing every day:

So the first huts we head to are in the Kaimai range near Tauranga. I will be drawing in there for a week before we head down to the mass of huts in the Te Ureweras. It was a bit of a challenge trying to make a route through there, and pick out which huts I want to draw. The only information I have of them is from the DOC website and a hut book I have which has only a limited number of huts. But I managed to write down a list of huts I particularly want to see. My goal is to draw 15 huts in this first month. The areas circled are where we will be until Christmas.

So, goodbye you all. I will write up a long update when I come back for Christmas, around the 20th of December. Take care..

In the Newspaper! The Art of a Hut

   It was a very odd feeling to come back from Levin and trees and friends all in a different world to the usual and hear myself on the radio and then see myself in the newspaper! Before I left I had emailed the Bay Chronicle a whole synopsis of The Art of a Hut project and asked if they would like to run an article on it. Dad encouraged me that it would be a good idea and a chance to let people know what I'm doing and that I'm serious about it in my search for sponsorship. They replied immediately saying they would be happy to write something up in the paper. After that I went away and forgot all about it until I got home again! 

   So there we are on page six of the paper and even a picture of me on the front page. I hope someone will be inspired to help us out a bit and sponsor us. I still need a couple of thousand more to be able to carry out the whole two months of drawing. It's petrol and food that are the main costs. But I trust that it will all work out for good whatever happens.