Art and Abart

Someone asked me why there are no photos of me on my blog/facebook/website. Well, here is one, a vignette taken last winter when I got my ...

I used to work almost opposite St Andrews Cathedral in Sydney but until last night I had never been inside the building. The Cathedral is ri...

I liked the T-shirt worn by Tom the pianist at last week's rehearsals. Perhaps being with people like Tom for 10 days made me doubly dis...

I always seem to be too busy to go to the beach, but tonight was so balmy I took the opportunity to take a beach walk. There was a huge moon...

I spent last week drawing at rehearsals in the old Marrickville Town Hall which has the most amazing plaster ceiling.  If you look at the ce...

My painting of tenor Stuart Skelton was not one of the forty (of 800) paintings chosen to be hung in the Archibald exhibition. Instead Stuar...

Today I found a box of old photos, among them a picture of my grandfather (the man with a cross above his head) with his ANZAC mates, taken ...

"I was particularly captivated by the personality of that gifted Emperor Frederich II., … it delighted me to find in the German mind ...

So I have taken my latest portrait into the Archibald Prize competition. It is a portrait of the Australian tenor Stuart Skelton. "I...

One can't help but be impressed by the outpouring of love for Hugo Chávez by his people. He did so much for the poor and particularly po...

I am reading a fascinating book, the autobiography of Richard Wagner called My Life . It is such an interesting insight into how life was li...

Here is a fantastic version of Lohengrin ... a complete version, with Jonas Kaufmann singing Lohnengrin and Annette Dasch singing Elsa. Also...

The artist Berthe Morisot, painted by Edouard Manet Isn't she gorgeous? I like this portrait so much I have made her my screen save...

Out they go, off to new homes. books, someone else's treasure Once upon a time our many boxes of books served as a stable base for ...

You shouldn't paint with acrylic over oil, that is unless you want an effect like this - a flaky looking portrait. Actually it looks bet...

William Bennett, Principal Oboist with the San Francisco Symphony died last week while playing with the orchestra. He was much loved and onl...

A cloudy day and our turquoise seas are gray and meld into the sky.  Looking north along the NSW Central Coast I am reminded of a pictu...

A fascinating interview with tenor Jonas Kaufmann about Lohengrin and about 'new' productions of 'old' operas. You can see w...

Vale Ralph Hotere , visionary New Zealand artist and activist who died on 24 February aged 81. His work has an uncanny knack of etching itse...

I am not very good at throwing things away as I always think there must be another use for them. Same for drawings. Perhaps I should have di...