Big Mural (Doug Ford)
This cityscape on a city wall in Grey Lynn is by Doug Ford whose artwork can be found throughout Auckland and far beyond. It is on Grosvenor Street at the corner with Great North Road (map).
Doug Ford has a muralsblog of his own. (Thanks to Timespanner for the link.)
Read more about Doug Ford at The Big Idea or at Wall Gallery, Ponsonby.
Painted Boxes: Heron Park (Doug Ford)
(Wednesday is for painted boxes.)
This is a box by Doug Ford, situated where Blockhouse Bay Road meets Great North Road (map). Painted in 2005, it depicts 3 species of herons (white-faced heron, white heron, reef heron – front to back, or if you speak Latin they are Ardea novaehollandiae, Egretta alba modesta, Egretta sacra). On the other side we have a landscape with a white heron in flight, see picture below, where one can see a bit of the Avondale Lions Club in the background.
The white heron is pretty rare in this part of New Zealand, but is occasionally seen around the shores of the Manukau Harbour, and it has also been quite some time since I last saw a reef heron. But white-faced herons are abundant wherever there are shores or wetlands.
Edit 19 Jan 2011: This box has been replaced (on December 5, 2010) by a brand new one, free of any artistic merit…
(Thanks to Lisa of Timespanner, who researched the disappearance of the herons.)
Painted Boxes: Heron Park (Doug Ford)
Painted Boxes: The Patient (Doug Ford)
(Wednesday is for painted boxes.)
This traffic control cabinet is on Lincoln Road, Henderson, by the entrance to Waitakere Hospital. Painted by Doug Ford (who has featured here before) with great sympathy for the patients.
Painted Boxes: The Unicycle (Doug Ford 2010)
(Wednesday is for painted boxes.)
This telecommunications cabinet is in Surrey Crescent, Grey Lynn. The artist is Doug Ford. An unlikely mode of transport across the bush, with lovely birds looking on. The left hand side panel of the box has a saddleback (left) and a NZ wood pigeon, detail below.
Saddleback and NZ Wood Pigeon (Doug Ford 2010)
Detail of the Mural at CUE Haven
Doug Ford has featured on this blog before, as creator of murals and numerous painted roadside cabinets (telecommunications and traffic control). Last Saturday we had the opportunity to paint a mural under his guidance at CUE Haven, a former farm along the Kaipara Coast Highway, between Kaukapakapa and Glorit. On previous days, Doug had outlined his design on the three walls of the former milking shed (now nursery), and when we arrived he deployed our talents with skill and good humour. You see him in his red hat below. Another group of people was due to continue the work on Sunday, and eventually Doug will clean it all up to meet his artistic standards.
CUE Haven is a 59 acre farm, now being converted back to New Zealand native bush, the vision and initiative of Tom and Mahrukh Stazyk. They were splendid hosts for the occasion, and made evryone feel part of the project. Tom explained some of the developments that had taken place so far, duly acknowledging a number of sponsors (RESENE paints were foremost on our day, of course).
Read more about CUE Haven.
Tom; Doug and Mahrukh; Doug Makes a Point
Progress
Everybody Paints
Sharing a Sandwich (Doug Ford, 2010)
Happiness is — sharing sandwiches? This telecommunications cabinet stands next to Mac’s Neighbourhood Brewbar in Kingsland, and I am sure that they would prefer the locals to partake of their pub platters, rather than sharing cut lunches out on the footpath. Street scenes and birdlife in Doug Ford‘s typical style.
Happy Kingslanders (Doug Ford, 2010)
New Lynn Bricks and Clay (Doug Ford)
Doug Ford has painted a number of traffic control cabinets in the New Lynn area. Some of them have already fallen victim to progress, be it in the form of street re-alignments, or technological improvements, not to mention traffic accidents. This stands in a pretty safe position at the corner of Great North Road and Delta Avenue. It shows the early brick and earthenware industries which were a major part of the early life in this region of Auckland.
Avondale Athletics (Doug Ford)
The club room of Avondale Athletics next to Eastdale Reserve, Avondale. Painted by Doug Ford.
More murals at Oakland Daily Photo.
Avondale Athletics (Doug Ford)
Avondale Athletics (Doug Ford)
Painted Boxes: Tree Huggers
This traffic control box can be found outside 366 Karangahape Road (map). It is one of numerous boxes decorated by Doug Ford (one of his murals was featured here on January 15). This one is “adopted by the Greens” – we will come across other adoptions in due course. When I met Doug at the Titirangi markets last year, he told me that these adoptions were no longer acceptable, but I did not understand why.
Doug Ford has a muralsblog of his own. (Thanks to Timespanner for the link.)
Read more about Doug Ford at The Big Idea or at Wall Gallery, Ponsonby.
Cecil Wood's motorcar
We take a quick break from our pictures of Pasifika 2010 and pursue our Wednesday theme of painted boxes. This box by Doug Ford (2006) is in Great North Road, Kelston (map). It commemorates Cecil Wood (1874-1965), who built the first automobile in New Zealand, about 1897 (the box says 1898, but this has been overpainted to read 1897, and in other sources I have seen 1896, let’s not be too pedantic about the date – the link above dates the car at 1901, a sequel of various two- and three-wheeled contraptions). A photograph not unlike what we see above (showing Cecil Wood in his third automobile, ca 1910) is held in the National Library of New Zealand.
There used to be another box by Doug Ford at the intersection of Great North and Portage Roads, New Lynn (map), referring to Cecil Wood’s first car. But unfortunately the imagery has given way to a bureaucratic shade of grey/green (Added 24/03/10: Julie Nash, Community Arts Coordinator, Watakere City, informed me that the cabinet fell victim to a road accident). Here is a picture of what used to be there:
First Motorcar
Doug Ford has a muralsblog of his own. (Thanks to Timespanner for the link.)
Read more about Doug Ford at The Big Idea or at Wall Gallery, Ponsonby.
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