Disparate Distractions

 In conjunction with my Facebook news page I would like to share this link. Check out the article from the ABC News Network  and the opinion of EEAK News Australia here. (my news page). Photo by Author. https://www.facebook.com/eeaknewsaustralia In EEAK News Australia’s opinion. It seems strange that when you read travel articles Joyce is bragging that in the domestic travel area he expects to be running at 70% of the domestic travel market. Especially when asked about the new player Regional Express on the Golden Triangle Route (Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.) Surely there will be a spike in air travel once everyone is jabbed with the vaccine Joyce wants everyone to have, before they can get on a Qantas plane. So why the rampage on sacking so many workers? When calculating these losses, why isn’t Qantas using the same logic it used years ago in a round of redundancies where it needed to sack 1700 workers back in the 90’s? In that case the cost to eradicate those jobs was $23million.

 In this era of the Covid-19 topsy turvy world of pandemic disease and diseased social media information. It is refreshing to be able to think of something else. This is why this blog has been a little bit ignored over the past few months. My time has been involved in making Warbird Portraits. Beautiful portraits of famous Warbird aircraft. I have been painting them constantly since March 2020. In the mean time my art has been selected for two major Australian Art Prizes as finalist works still waiting to see if I have won anything. Just being selected is a good thing. Here are a few samples of my latest series of aircraft portraits, enjoy. Bathed in Brilliant Sunshine Black Cat Dawn Birds Frolicking Red Bird Black Bird Play Yellow Tailed Bird Yellow Tipped Bird The author and his awards. So proud to be a finalist in the Napier Waller and the Gosford Art Prize been a great year for me so far this 2020 year of disaster for so many. Take care all of you. See more of my art at: https://ww

My Studio Photo by Yianni Johns. Covid 19 isolation is fantastic for me. No, I’m not happy people are dying in hospitals and in their loungerooms and the streets. In most cases they are alone, away from their families, that is sad. But for me as an Artist and Writer this virus induced isolation opens the door to great contemplative time and also leaves me with time to paint and write. Usually I have to top up my creative life by working three to four days a week as an aerospace engineer out here in the Riverina. That money helps pay for the everyday stuff, food, utilities, petrol, art supplies and champagne. No Corona for me in this period. Although over summer I am sure I contributed to that beer manufacturers wealth pretty well. I lost my engineering gig over a month ago. I am lucky I have a debt free mortgage free life. That is why I moved from the bustling city to the relative solitude of the Riverina district to a village called Ardlethan. Population of probably two

Why Say Art Is Good When IT Isn't. Have you ever been asked to judge art or even vote on a selection of art? I recently was asked to judge from a line up of 17 paintings from a world leading city in art. No matter how hard I looked or how generous my art filter, I could not find one painting there worthy of a second look. Contrived, overtly influenced i.e. seen it all before and just plain awful and unfinished half baked ideas that is all I could see. If this is what is emerging from a world centre of art it is  very sad. The people involved didn't like my responses even though they invited me to pick and judge. It's wrong to say that art is good when it isn't. Why? Because it stifles the poor developing artists. If they are told everything they do is great they are not going to strive to get better. They fall for their own publicity and then the art falls from good. So brown so grey so mud that is all I can say about the latest batch of unfortunate works.  In f

No More Thumbs in the air for Me! image found on the internet In My Opinion; You know there is a picture running around the internet that shows Pratt, Trump and Morrison, all thumbs upping the camera. The good old symbol of the thumbs up, everything is okay. She’ll be right mate. Safe to go. The thumbs up symbol in Aviation means all safe to go. But under the watch of Morrison, Trump et al the symbol to me is reaching new lows and broadcasting how unsafe our reality really is under the watch of these aspirational dictators. dreamtime stock image The fist clenched with the thumb pointing up is no more a safety symbol nowadays than a sign warning of toxic waste, or nuclear leaks. These blokes of dubious past Trump and his alleged dodgy businesses, Morrison and his alleged indiscretions in the Tourism job, all hidden from public perusal because they must want to hide something, otherwise why wouldn’t they release information that will stop people like me thinking th

Detail of my 2019 Archibald Prize Entry I will publish the full painting after the 2nd of May when the finalists are told they are in or out. Here I am after literally five months working on this portrait. My subject is Alan Milne. He was executive manager of 747 at Qantas Airways for many years, ending his time with Qantas during the time it took me to paint this painting. Alan is now Managing Director of Air Niugini living in Port Moresby. I chose Alan because of a couple of reasons. The first being he is a person of Arts and Letters a requirement of the rules to enter the Archibald Prize. Australia's preeminent Art Prize with $100,000 as first prize so you can imagine every man and his dog who can hold a paint brush wants to enter. And generally that is what does happen. The other reason is because I want to pay homage to the Queen of the skies the 747 which turned fifty this year 2019. The same year that Qantas will be ceasing its long association with the 747 airc