The Flying Pieman was one of Sydney's early eccentrics, the underachieving, misdirected son of a minor notable in early 19th century London who wanted him to go into the Anglican priesthood via Oxford. Young William was more interested in athletic pursuits, particularly feats of extreme pedestrianism. His family dispatched him to the colony of NSW.
By turns he became an itinerant pie seller with a portable pie warmer who entertained the colonists with challenges - like walking 36 miles(60km) in 9 hours while carrying a 30kg dog, or selling ferry passengers pies at Circular Quay, then greeting them with more when they arrived at Parramatta, 20km up river, having hotfooted it there ahead of them
Finished but the photo has shine from the sky, which also seems to have fooled the AF as well. I'll take a better shot as soon as possible
A tiny bit of detailing and retouching still to do
Text is now all completed and I'm doing as much retouching as I can manage tonight and tomorrow morning before it goes in to Since I Left You, a bar in Kent St in the city, for its launch at the next Pie in the Sky Poets night on Tuesday 20 November - find out more at https://poetrysydney.org/
with some text
Pieman with Pies! High in the Sky over Sydney- there's still plenty of finishing to do though, as well as a few words to add
The basics of the composition, with the pieman(on a tightrope?) high above some version of Sydney - which I still have to flesh out a bit - that's Pinchgut in the Harbour
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