Brothers and Sister - Postcard of the Horatii

A portrait group I painted for Julie O'Brien of her cousins in New Zealand for Christmas in the year of COVID

 

 

The interlocking gazes in the photo I started with reminded me of the brothers in David's Oath of the Horatii somehow and the pic also had a Norfolk Island pine or some other Araucaria in the background, so I found a view with some more to stand in for the severe McDonald's arches in David's neoclassical allegory of duty and filial piety(and murder of siblings and spouses in their name - this is the Pacific version so there are no wailing women or terrified children).

 

 Pictorially the columns are kind of turned on their head - like the trick Marx pulled on Hegel. Living(and dead) trees, not polished stone columns create a dramatic angle, not holding it aloft but emerging from it underfoot!

Fun and games!

 

 

 

A portrait group I'm doing for Julie O'Brien of her cousins in New Zealand

 

The old Bushels factory

 

 

Thanks to Robert Smith who put me up at his place in Concord so I could start this view of the old Bushell's factory behind a mangrove tree in the river, and with one of the zillions of identical south Florida condos that cover the old factory sites of Cabarita

 

Peter Urquhart sings- Video at Anvil Rock

Pete got offered a slot in Carols by Candlelight, a fundraiser for Northern Irish childrens charity NSPCC. I got Charles Freyberg to drive me up to Blackheath at the top of the Blue Mountains.

Pete took us out to Anvil Rock where he read a story he was entrusted with in Arnhem land, the origin of the Morning Star, a tale of death and rebirth. Where we were sitting is a massacre site

He followed this with his song Brothers and Sisters accompanying himself on the viola. We were lucky that the afternoon was still, hardly a breath of wind over the peaks so the audio is good, and with the location it was easy to get good pictures

In the new year, after the show, I'll stick this up on my youtube channel and post a link here.

 

 

A painting from earlier in the year, showing the same view from nearby Govetts Leap