Photoprint for Sale: Chimney Of Ruined Stone House, Lindis Pass, 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

Photoprint for Sale: Ruined Stone House Among Autumn Poplars, Lindis Valley, New Zealand

This is an original photoprint from my personal collection

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

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

New Zealand Odyssey: Lodge Arrow, Kilwinning No. 86, Arrowtown

'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.

In 2011 this handsome building looked exactly the same as when I did this painting of it in 1988. It's built of layered stone schist - a local material of which Central Otago seems entirely composed! It's an impressive structure and looks as if it will last for ever. 

Freemasonry is a mystery to me. Despite having been in business for many years I was never invited to become a mason (or Rotarian, Buffalo, Oddfellow etc) and would probably have turned any offers down anyway as I'm not one for joining such hand-holding organizations.

© DON DONOVAN

donovan@ihug.co.nz

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New Zealand Odyssey: A Farm Barn on Speargrass Flat, Central Otago

'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 old stone farm barn was at Speargrass Flat, between Arrowtown and Queenstown in Central Otago. It looked like this in the late 1980s, a huge area of corrugated iron in various stages of repair covering stout schist walls that looked as if they would last forever. 

In the twenty of more years since then parts of Speargrass Flat have become among the most expensive bits of real estate in New Zealand with an international golf course, time share apartments and 'Homes and Gardens' homes and gardens that would even make dents in the bank accounts of Wall Street financiers!

I'm pleased to say that the original of this watercolour hangs in the sitting room of an old friend who seems to love it.

 © DON DONOVAN

donovan@ihug.co.nz

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Schist Outcrops: Dansey Pass

Most of the romance has been removed from the roads of New Zealand so that tourism may be more comfortable, easier. Roads that were once serpentine and shingle-surfaced are now straighter and macadamized; the traffic travels faster, the roadside histories are passed by, the grandeur is now seen in broad sweeps with detail left unconsidered.

But Dansey Pass, once a miners’ route from north Otago into the gold fields of the Maniototo and Central Otago, remains narrow, winding, rough and romantic. It runs from the Kyeburn Diggings to the south bank of the Waikato River and if you care to stop at one of the few off-road refuges and switch off the engine and then listen to the sweet nothings that come on the air from the stream below and whispering tussock grasses your eyes will start to distinguish slow moving sheep who, like the remains of miner’s stone huts, are the same colour as the landscape: sometimes, grey, perhaps pink, often amber.

The rock is mainly schist; speckled pancakes perfect for building huts and fences where one layer may be snuggled above another without mortar – like giant flaky pastry. In an otherwise hostile surround the rock was often home and shelter to the miners.

© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz
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