Christmas

Christmas is over? Time to go home?

Christmas

Christmas? So soon?

Teasing

When I was growing up teasing was seen as a way to toughen up children to prepare them for life. It was only later when I was living in Europe did I realise that teasing was not universal and that societies without teasing produced more secure citizens. When you think about it rationally humiliating children is bound to have deleterious effects.

Prank calls seem to be most prevalent in societies where teasing is rife, societies which also have the biggest problem with bullying. Australia is trying to deal with bullying in schools but I think the tragic results of the recent 'prank' call shows that we need to tackle the issue on a whole-of-society basis.

The so-called 'prank' call

When I was in Slovenia in September the economic downturn was biting and an art dealer told me that everyone would prefer to live in Australia. I looked around at the Slovenians sitting in the relaxed but arty coffee shops or wandering along the picturesque streets and was at a loss to explain that it wasn't all roses in Australia. Now the so called Kate Middleton 'prank-call' has provided the explanation for me.

Several years ago a barista making my coffee in Sydney's Hyde Park told me he used to work at Sydney Airport. I told him how much I liked the coffee at the Italian coffee shop there and he said “It used to be good I know but it has changed. All the shops have been bought by Canberra politicians."

Those were the years when John Howard was Prime Minister and Max Moore-Wilton was head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Some time later I read that Moore-Wilton had become CEO of Sydney Airport and I remembered the words of that barista.

Sydney Airport became a place everyone wished they could avoid. Passengers were (and still are) forced to walk for miles around cosmetic/alcohol counters before boarding their flights, stale food (I have friends who have become very sick after eating it) is served by harried and obviously low-paid worker and short term parking areas for those picking up incoming passengers was abolished and replaced by threatening men in fluro-jackets who forced everyone into astronomically priced parking stations. It became the worst possible welcome to Australia for overseas guests and Sydneysiders were very unimpressed.

Now Moore-Wilton is in the news again as Chair of Austereo which owns 2Day FM, the Sydney radio station that played that so-called "prank" that has caused the death of a British nurse. 2Day FM management vetted and approved the 'prank' call. Local radio shock-jocks, the type of people who put out mis-information (many are climate-change-deniers) and encourage others in their prejudices, are not only tolerated here but are popular and have been able to push the boundaries of good-taste with impunity.

There are a lot of Australians who are embarrassed and now appalled at their behaviour. When I voted in a Sydney newspaper's poll about the 'prank' (before the nurse's death) I was one of 61% who said they thought the hoax was silly and juvenile.  This large swath of the population who finds such 'humour' distasteful has been disenfranchised.  You are regarded as a poor sport if you complain and are bullied into silence. (Try ringing up one of the shock jocks to put a reasoned point of view and you will see what I mean.) Let's hope this changes but I am not very hopeful. Commentaries in the newspapers find the death tragic but are being very quick to point the finger at everyone but themselves ... the hospital ... the British Press ... etc etc.  The chip on the shoulder mentality is alive and well.

Sydney by NIght

Sydney Opera House (left) and Harbour Bridge at midnight

Yesterday was very windy but by midnight when the host of a Christmas party I attended took his guests onto the rooftop of his apartment building to look at the view the wind had died down. The evening was balmy, the view spectacular and we remaining guests lounged along the railing watching the lights of a huge ocean liner as it moved along the harbour.

A new laptop

My laptop died. It was bought in 2007 so some people would say it was old .... but not me. In the interim I have been using my travel EeePC. You can do a whole lot on these little machines, but they do have their limits.

Last week I got a new laptop a Dell Inspiron 17R Special Edition that reviews said has whizz bang insides in its rather old fashioned exterior. Certainly it is enormous and you wouldn't want to carry it far. It is also fast ... and hopefully can deal with video editing software reasonable well. We shall see.

EeePC (left) and Dell 17" (right)

Brisbane Waters

I made a card from a recent painting of the Brisbane Waters. Not that anyone buys cards any more because postage has become so exorbitant it makes you think twice about sending cards. Perhaps I should figure out how to make my own e-cards. Now there's an idea.

NSW Central Coast Greeting Card

Port Navalo .... in 1981

 I have just found a couple of little sketches I made in 1981 in Port Navalo in France. We spent a very happy family holiday there.

Sydney by night.

Sydney Opera House

This is where I have been for the past three days - and late into the night. The Sydney Opera House is a wonderful place to work, especially when you come out at night to a view like this.

The photos were taken on my Android mobile phone. It is amazing what sort of quality these small devices can produce but you have to  keep still or you just get lots of lines of lights.

Photographs of city lights usually make me feel a bit lonesome because that is how I view skyscraper cities but I know and love Sydney  so when I look at the photo below I get conflicting  messages. Weird.

Sydney at night .... view from the opera house

Photographing Chickens

Photographing chickens is worse than painting cats .... they move faster thqn you can click the button.

Australian Christmas Card

While I was making Wagner cards, I also made a Christmas Card!

Laughing Kookaburra Christmas Card by elizabethgw

Richard Wagner Greeting Card

Next year is Richard Wagner's 200th birthday and I have been working on some Wagner-related art for a 2013 exhibition. I also made some Wagner related greeting cards from etchings I made in Dunedin.

Richard Wagner Profile Art Card by elizabethgw

Maribor Musicians online

It took a little while but at last my paintings of the 2012 Maribor Music Festival are online.
See them at artsmitten.com

Thomas Demenga plays Cello
in the Aloysius Church in Maribor

Painting in Maribor (Photo Dejan Bulut )

Simon O'Neill sings Puccini's Nessun dorma

If you paint a portrait of someone they become part of your life. I have pictures of several of my portrait candidates hanging in my studio and view them with affection.

One is a portrait of the tenor Simon O'Neill.   He has a wonderful voice (see the video) and as you can see in the film about him understudying Placido Domingo at the Met in 2003, he is friendly, outgoing and humble . Just a really nice fellow.

Historic Clifton Gardens

Not many parts of historic Sydney have managed to save themselves from the wreckers ball but one small gem that remains is the historic wharf at Clifton Gardens. There is a cupboard sized cafe there and live music on Sundays. The perfect spot to relax away from the madding crowd.

Clifton Gardens Beach Cafe

Beach Cafe

Clifton GArdens Beach

Bottom of the rainbow

It is raining hard here but in bright sunshine, so we must be right at the bottom of the rainbow. Now where is that pot of gold?

Bright sun, rain

Raindrops

Kookaburras

Hooray, the Kookaburras are back!

They sit in the big gum tree next to my bedroom and laugh before the first rays of dawn peep over the horizon. Then after dusk but before it is completely dark, there they are again cackling away in their tree.

Kookaburras - watercolour

Kookaburras are a variety of Kingfisher and it is said that although they don't migrate but they do expand their range in winter to find food. I am happy to have them in my neighbourhood again.

Yachts on Brisbane Waters

Tuesday's Central Coast Art Group 'paint out' was at Empire Bay where the only shade was at the table fishers use to gut their catch. Even that shade was disappearing fast, so rather than start a new painting I decided to add some yachts to a painting I'd started around the bay at Wagstaff several months ago. The result is an amalgam of both places but very typical of all the bays on Brisbane Waters.

There were two fishers sharing the shade and they discovered a large turtle camouflaged among the water weeds near the shore.
I heard one of them say to the other, "Good bit of bush tucker eh?"

Melbourne Cup, 2012

I went to a 'paint out' with a local art group this morning but instead of the usual 10-15 participants only one other person was there. Ah, the Melbourne Cup!

It reminded me of my first experience of Australia on the first Tuesday in November. I was in Sydney city and wondered why the streets were suddenly so bare. Could there have been a national emergency? Then I discovered that Australia grinds to a halt at 3pm once a year for a horse race. Today an outsider won the race so there was a good payout and no doubt its backers will be partying all night.

On the way to victory

Bravo Jim Cooper

Jim Cooper has just won the Portage Prize, the premier ceramics prize in New Zealand. Congratulations Jim!

Jim Cooper (photo from the Otago Daily Times)

I thought clay was boring until I had Jim Cooper as a teacher. He is not only a wonderful ceramic artist, he is an 'original';  a man who does things his way, who is more generous than anyone I have ever met and who taught me a lot about art while I was messing with clay. I learned to look at art differently in Jim's class. I realised that art can be whatever you want it to be.