It took a few goes at landing and a return to Christchurch to change planes, but we finally arrived into Queenstown for a few days to celebrate Kate’s Birthday in the Mountains… there’s a real buzz in town for the skiing season, everyone’s having a happy time and it’s magic to be here in the… Continue reading Snow drifts in
Tag: quotes
Playing Hamlet
We all have roles to play; this is me in my former role as President of the NZ Academy of Fine Arts, according to Jackson Pollock “Painting is self discovery. Every good artist paints what he is”….So what is that really?….. “It’s very important to remember that we all have Buddha nature. That cannot be… Continue reading Playing Hamlet
The Sea Question
The Sea Question The sea asks ‘How is your life now?’ It does so obliquely, changing colour. It is never the same on any two visits. It is never the same in any particular Only in generalities: tide and such matters Wave height and suction, pebbles that rattle. It doesn’t presume to wear a white… Continue reading The Sea Question
Broken
On my way to Hanmer Springs for the weekend I had my first visit to Christchurch since the Earthquake four years ago. It is truly sobering. Where there was once a vibrant city it was eerily cleared and filled with bare spaces like a wasteland of emptiness. With hardly anyone around it had such a depressing… Continue reading Broken
What are you seeing?
Someone asked me the other day, “how do I decide what to paint?” It’s a good question and one I get asked a lot in my classes. I know it has to come from the heart, it has to stir something in me. Then I came across this quote from Degas, and it got me… Continue reading What are you seeing?
Getting out of the way…
When I step aside… “Life becomes a process of creative discovery from the moment essence is recognized and experienced as one’s true being. It continues to be an endless process of creative discovery when the identity shifts to essence; however, there is now the understanding that it is so. There is now the understanding and… Continue reading Getting out of the way…
Facing the Wind
“Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it” – Eckhart Tollé Some times life moulds you, sometimes you stand strong and just bend with it! Each new day dawns, alive with the sunrise, Opening to the opportunity? You can see this painting at ZeaYou Gallery in Taupo, and more of… Continue reading Facing the Wind
Birdsong
Coming to my senses on retreat in California. I’m struck by the different sounds and songs of the birds that are foreign to me… And how much their songs are a soundtrack to my life, how this gently permeates my consciousness and lifts my spirit. And just as I have flown half way round the… Continue reading Birdsong
Coming home
Places where the heart lives…. “When you love something like reading — or drawing or music or nature — it surrounds you with a sense of connection to something great. If you are lucky enough to know this, then your search for meaning involves whatever that Something is. It’s an alchemical blend of affinity and… Continue reading Coming home
To love again.
“Into the Light” – Punakaiki West Coast, oil on canvas, 37 x 75cm I spent three days waiting in the pouring rain for some sun, early the next day I was returning to Wellington. Right at the end of the last day there was light – just for an hour, but it was magic…..it was… Continue reading To love again.
