Photoprint for Sale: Village Cinema, Geraldine, South Canterbury, 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

Photoprint for Sale: Art Deco Mayfair Cinema, Kaikoura, 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
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New Zealand Odyssey: Mayfair Theatre, Kaikoura

'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 is how Kaikoura's Mayfair Theatre looked around 1988. It still looks the same today except that it's had at least one paint makeover since then - I suspect many more than one.

The simple, symmetrical art deco building comes as a bit of a surprise as you travel along the foreshore of the Kaikoura Peninsula whose architecture is largely New Zealand suburban seaside 'gothic' built around the late nineteenth early twentieth centuries. Kaikoura is one of those resorts whose populations swell enormously in the holiday season; otherwise I doubt that the small town could support a healthy theatre.

© DON DONOVAN

donovan@ihug.co.nz

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New Zealand Odyssey: Cinema, Eltham, Taranaki.

'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.

O Glory! Corrugated iron on the grand scale! 

The front of this cinema is the bit on the left, in black and white. It was the rest that excited me; I don't think I've seen a better example of iron construction in all my New Zealand travels. And the colour was out of this world.

Eltham is on the inland road that connects Inglewood to Hawera, via Stratford, to the east of Mt. Taranaki/Egmont. When I did this drawing in 1987 the whole village seemed to be in a time-warp that suggested the 1930s: Bogart, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, George Sanders, Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet...

I expect Eltham's more prosperous looking now, being in dairy farming country, and I doubt if this building still exists (although it should; it's a classic).

© DON DONOVAN

donovan@ihug.co.nz