A house

I have a house! After lots of looking at 'rennovators dreams' I finally found a cottage with a 'loved' feel and only needing cosmetic improvements. Today is settlement day.

Maribor Festival Paintings

Finally!  It took a while but I now have the paintings and sketches I made at the Maribor Music Festival in September 2010 online at www.artsmitten.com

This is the Choir of London singing in the Maribor Cathedral accompanied by the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra.

Miriam Gordon-Stewart sings Tosca

Here is your reason to go to Bremerhaven. This trailer shows just what small opera houses can do.

Last October I drew Miriam in Bremerhaven during a performance of Peter Grimes. Miriam sang the role of  Ellen Orford.

Opera Quay in Sydney

I drew this as I sat waiting for a friend at the Opera Quays Dendy theatre last weekend. We were seeing the Metropolitan Opera's new production of the Verdi opera Don Carlo. It was four and a half hours of exquisite singing. Wonderful but exhausting.

On the Manly Ferry

Manly is much improved since I last visited many years ago, but the best part is still getting there by ferry. It is a magic trip.

View from Lou Jack's window

This is the view through the window of Lou Jack's Cafe on Newtown's King Street at 8:30am.

I love this time of the year in Sydney when the streets are almost empty. Soon everyone will come back from the coast and the street with throb with life again.

Otago Paintings

I have put a series of watercolours painted in NZ in November online at artsmitten.com. This one is of Dunedin's Mt Cargill.

A cloud often sits on top of Mt Cargill making it look like an iced bun. On top a TV antenna pokes out of the cloud.

New Year Fireworks in Sydney

I have often seen Sydney's New Year fireworks but for the first time this year I had a box seat at an apartment in Greenwich. I could see the bridge as well as all five of the Sydney Harbour firework sites. It was a great welcome back.

This was the view at 6pm.

and this was the view at midnight.

White teapot

The cafe at the Art Gallery of NSW serves tea in little white teapots.

Watercolour captures the charm of such objects better than most mediums I think.

Sydney style?

This newly rennovated Westfield shopping center sits amongst Sydney's charming old brick buildings. I suppose someone thought white glass with swirls was stylish? More probably, style was not a prerequisite but rather the abiity to get as many upmarket stores as possible into the dark rabbit warrens inside.

Merry Christmas

Meistersinger

In Hamburg I saw a very amusing verson of Meistersinger and drew while I watched. The pics are on artsmitten.com.

Here is Johan Botha singing Stolzing in Meistersinger, 2008.

Modern Michelangelo

A modern Michelangelo at work in a small Italian-themed shopping area in Ettalong Beach.

The difference between this Michelangelo and the one that painted 600 years ago is the light box (the black box under the plank our Michelangelo is standing on) which he is using to shine the image onto the ceiling.

The image is probably a copy of one painted by the 1510 Michelangelo. The light box didn't work very well in the bright summer light.

Patonga sunrise

Early morning in Patonga on the Central Coast. I took this photo then went back to bed ...

A little while later, my wall turned into a mural....

So I got up and looked out the window.

Otago Harbour

This view was painted from a hill but Otago Harbour looked just like this from the air as I flew out.

'My' Dunedin

Dunedin is one of my favorite places. The views are stunning. This is Dunedin from the Otago Penninsula.

Dunedin's building have integrity. Most have been little changed since they were built, whenever that may have been. This one is in the city center.

The Robbie Burns statue opposite the town hall is a perfect viewing platform for seagulls.

The teeth sculpture at the mouth of the Otago Penninsula is a new addition since I was here a year ago.

When the cloud lifts, this is the view. The teeth stand to the right.

The only blot on the landscape is the new stadium a building that divided the city when it was approved in a clock and dagger manner. Lets hope it succeeds now it is being built because the citizens have become so indebted that they are having to close library services and such like in order to support the stadium. It is being built on reclaimed land, so it might just disappear under the waves as the seas rise.

Goodbye Dunedin. I look forward to seeing you again before too long.

What have they done to our chocolate?

In Germany I bought a (surprisingly cheap) block of Milka chocolate and I had to throw most of it away. It tasted like chemical mush. I forgot to look if it was made in China but it was so cheap I wouldn't be at all surprised.

There is a Cadbury's factory in Dunedin and when Cadbury was bought out by Kraft in 2009 the workers were afraid the factory would be closed. It stayed open, but they must have changed the chocolate recipe as it has become inedible. It tastes more like soap than chocolate.

Yuck, yuck.
Thank heavens for Lindt and Whittackers (in NZ).

Time passes

New Zealand mourns

New Zealand mourns the lost miners but we all so admire Australian Peter Whittall, a man very different from some of his media colleagues from across the ditch. This is what the Otago Daily Times reported today:

A second Australian journalist, from Australia's Channel Seven, asked: "Can you imagine New York firefighters standing around the World Trade Centre waiting to be told they shouldn't go in if there were lives in the balance."
Pike River Coal chief executive Peter Whittall said that was an inappropriate question.
"I'm not going to comment ...my guys are underground, I'm not going to answer a question like that." 
 
Newsmen like these give their country a very bad name.

Only at Modaks

Where else do you find the most beautiful peonies in a glass jar?