Leaves From My Sketchbooks. 49. Church Detail, Dover, England

This is another of those sketches done from the passenger's seat of the car while somebody goes shopping. The sketchbooks are in the glove compartment with the pen and ink. You balance the ink bottle on the gear box cover and pray that it won't slide off. 

Although it's a small piece I see that I put decent effort into this because the random rubble fabric of the church wall is as fascinating as a complex mosaic. The masons must have gone half mad trying to fit all the blocks together.

© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz 

www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz

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Country Churches of NZ 128, St. Alban the Martyr, St Bathans, Central Otago

I wrote and illustrated Country Churches of New Zealand. It was published in 2002 by New Holland, Publishers and is still on sale in bookshops. The publishers have kindly agreed to me re-publishing some of the book’s images and descriptions in this blog.

ST. ALBAN THE MARTYR, ST BATHANS

At first glance it looked little more than an overgrown garden shed and hardly worth painting, but the neat stone wall and history tipped the scales.

St. Alban the Martyr was pre-fabricated in England and sent by Captain F.G. Dalgety, owner of the local Hawkdun Station, to St Bathans complete with furniture, matting, bibles, and prayer books.

It replaced earlier Union churches: one built in 1865 and blown down the next day, and the second subsequently rendered roofless!

St. Alban's was erected in 1883 but it took over 100 years to consecrate it as an Anglican church to be shared with Presbyterians.

© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz
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