Photoprint for Sale: St.Mary's Roman Catholic Basilica, Invercargill, New Zealand

This is an original photoprint from my personal collection

Size of image is 46cm x 30cm (18" x 12").

Price is $NZ 50.00 inc. urban p. and p. in NZ.

Please contact me at donovan@ihug.co.nz or 09 4159 701.

© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz 
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz

Leaves From My Sketchbooks. 74. The Convicts' Church, Port Arthur, Tasmania

I warmed my bottom on the heat-soaked smoothness of Scorpion Rock to paint this little watercolour and then, later, moved to the flat area on the other side to do the pen sketch. It's a beautiful piece of neo-Gothic no doubt designed to cleanse sinners' souls even though their sins were not forgiven by their fellow men. I couldn't help feeling that it was probable that the stains on the souls of sadistic guards, warders, judges, priests and transporters of the poor fellows were blacker by far!

It's such a peaceful place and yet only a few years ago a madman ran amok with a gun and killed a number of visitors in senseless fury. Odd to think that on another day I might have been one of them...

There is no roof on the church. Was it lead, I wonder? Did somebody pinch it?

© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz 
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz
.

New Zealand Odyssey: Our Lady of the Snows, Franz Josef Glacier Township, Westland

'New Zealand Odyssey', published in 1989 by Heinemann, was authored by me, 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.

This, in 1989, was the first painting I ever did of this church. I did another, later, which appeared in my book Country Churches of New Zealand.

Our Lady of the Snows is designed like a Swiss church with a steep-pitched roof to shed snow. Having been dedicated, opened and blessed on 23 December 1951 it's not old, but it is different. Small and intimate, it has the atmosphere of an appropriate place in which to consign one's fate to one's maker before taking to the mountains.

In the porch are two St. Bernard windows, one depicts crossed skis and a shield containing a loaf of bread and a flask of brandy, the other has a ski pole and ice pick crossed, and a coiled rope.

© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz
.

New Zealand Odyssey: Holy Name Church, Ashburton

'New Zealand Odyssey', published in 1989 by Heinemann, was authored by me, 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.

No matter how hard an author tries there is bound to be at least one mistake in any book. This was the only one in 'New Zealand Odyssey'. I captioned the church 'Holy Child, Ashburton'; it should have been 'Holy Name'. 

I know how I made the mistake: my wife went to a Holy Child convent when she was a young girl. That name stuck in my mind and superseded 'Holy Name'. Simple as that. It took a reader in Ashburton to spot the mistake and tell me about it, much to my chagrin. 

What appealed to me about the church was not so much its architecture - no matter how good it is - but that in a small town like Ashburton the local Roman Catholics could have had the cash and energy to build such a solid temple.

© DON DONOVAN

donovan@ihug.co.nz

.