Instant Gratification

Instant Gratification

Essay on which the forward for Alessandro Tomassetti’s book Instant Gratification was based. The medium is fast. The effect long lasting. And sublime. Painters feel time differently. They feel the weight of it. The old masters lean on them with a constant...
Domestic Bliss

Domestic Bliss

This is the first in a new series of paintings arising from a process of exploration. I work from source material to ignite the process, then the painting evolves and reveals itself. The method involves painting, then sanding back, then painting again then sanding...
Vrschikasana – Yoga Art 2

Vrschikasana – Yoga Art 2

This image is inspired by my yoga practice, the beauty of the poses, and the energy flow within and surrounding the movement. Click here to purchase prints and editions of this artwork . ....
Millennial Mindset

Millennial Mindset

Being a Millennial has nothing to do with age. It is a state of mind. Read on, you may discover you’ve been a Millennial your whole life. I’m 54. I have a grey beard and long grey hair. Old friends like to call me Gandalf for a laugh. Depending on your own age I’m...
10 things I learned from my dogs

10 things I learned from my dogs

I never had a dog before. Animals were fine but I never really, “got,” them, at least not in the way other people seemed to.  I’d met some Scottish terriers in South Africa and thought they were great but owning one, no, not really me. My wife...
Badly Remembered Poetry

Badly Remembered Poetry

I wandered lonely as a cloud . . . something, something, something… In praise of the half-remembered gems of poetry. I’d like to think of myself as someone who remembers complete poems. Someone who can recite them at significant moments in life, preferably looking...
Holy Smoke

Holy Smoke

In the early hours of Friday morning RJD gallery in Sag Harbor was destroyed by fire. All the artwork on the premises was lost. Hundreds of original paintings gone. Millions of considered brush strokes no more to be seen. With everything else that is going on in the...
Direct Governance

Direct Governance

If I can handle my banking online why can’t I run my country online? Wouldn’t that be better, more responsive democracy? Why do I need politicians to represent me? I can see why they were necessary in the past but why do I need them now? If I can access my online bank...
No Retreats. No Surrender.

No Retreats. No Surrender.

I’m sitting with my eyes closed in a school hall in Dublin. Forty people I met only yesterday surround me. John Denver strums over the sound system and we’re encouraged to sing along. This is the 80’s. This is personal development. “Sweet, sweet surrender. Live, live...
Social anxiety and me

Social anxiety and me

I’m 5 years old and uncle Tommy is coming over to show his cine films. This is 1968 and it’s a big deal. If you’ve seen Mad Men you’ll get the picture. Cine films were an event because they were in colour. Our tv was black and white. Cine films...
Tax Time Blood Bath

Tax Time Blood Bath

Tax Time Blood Bath   You are standing in a darkened room with a large group of people who, like you, have come to see Tax Time Blood Bath. In front of you are five translucent plinths each glowing with a white light. On each plinth is a transparent table and...
Yoga Art 8

Yoga Art 8

This image is inspired by my yoga practice, the beauty of the poses, and the energy flow within and surrounding the movement. For prints, t-shirts, tote bags and a range of other products with this image click here.     Save
Morning Offering

Morning Offering

This painting asks further questions about beauty, sensuality, and mystery. Where does the beauty in this painting lie? Is it in the beautiful form of the woman, the sensuality of the moment or the intangible personal experience portrayed? Is this a morning stretch, a...
Uma Thurman

Uma Thurman

Gaze is a series of paintings inspired by the experience of being held in the gaze of a strong woman. Well known actors were used as reference to highlight the contrast between the celebrity portrayals of these women and the reality of their being. The intent of these...
Monica Bellucci

Monica Bellucci

This painting is part of a series of six called Gaze. The series includes, Uma Thurman, Salma Hayek, Nicole Kidman, Monica Bellucci, Isabella Rossellini and Cher. I painted this series in 2005 in Brisbane.
The allure of shame

The allure of shame

If I look a bit happy beside a painting with the heavy title of, “The allure of shame,” it’s because this painting was a marathon to paint. I took me 13 years!! It began as a simple picture of a woman on a beach which I painted in Brisbane in 2003. I...

Intestinal Flora

I started this painting in 2014 in a frenzy of color that turned to mud in the shape of a colon. It sat in my studio for 3 years waiting for me to know what to do next. I painted the second layer just as explosivley as the first. Acrylic on canvas. 27″ x...
Art Viewing In The Future

Art Viewing In The Future

Art Viewing in the Future Art Viewing in the Future If you’re an artist, do you want more people to see your work? Do you want people to see your work even if your original paintings are in a private collection or a storage vault? Do you want people to...
Emergent

Emergent

I’m expanding my art practice to include unplanned paintings. I don’t know what these are going to look like when I begin. I just begin. This is the most successful one to date. Once it was finished it didn’t feel like I had done it. I look at it the...
Support the podcast

Support the podcast

If you met me in real life would you like to have a cup of tea with me?Well now you can – the tea part at least. Every month you can send me the price of a cup of tea. The podcast pretty much runs on cups of tea bought by people like you and I really appreciate...
Mrs D

Mrs D

This painting started off as a little colour study I did one afternoon of my wife, Mege. I did it as a surprise for her birthday.  I should mention that I painted it by sight, meaning I didn’t measure anything from the original reference photographs I used....
Gaze

Gaze

This painting is part of a series of six called Gaze. The series includes, Uma Thurman, Salma Hayek, Nicole Kidman, Monica Bellucci, Isabella Rossellini and Cher.  I painted this series in 2005 in Brisbane. As you can see the painting has remained the same in the last...