New Zealand Odyssey: 46 Parnell Road, Auckland

'New Zealand Odyssey', published in 1989 by Heinemann, was authored by Don Donovan (who did the text and illustrations) and Euan Sarginson, who did the photography and design. In this series of blog posts, I will publish some of my drawings.

  

Somebody's folly, this pseudo-Georgian building stands, unique, on Auckland's fashionable Parnell Road. I was unable to find out anything about its history but was attracted to it for its almost Dickensian sense of history. At the time I painted it, about 1987, it seemed almost anonymous with no external indication of its function. In 2011 it is, I believe, a restaurant. 

What a delight it was to paint those bricks in all their subtle ochres. A building of two halves, the left a mirror image of the right.

© DON DONOVAN

donovan@ihug.co.nz