My favourite things
I began painting My favourite things last January and it has been hanging around waiting for me to complete it ever since. I finally managed it yesterday. It’s very simple picture really: an A to Z of some of the things I love best in the world from aardvark to zebra. Before I painted in [...]
The self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi – 17 December 2010
What a magic carpet ride it’s been this past year for our brothers and sisters in North Africa and the Middle East. Egypt’s Mubarak-led police state deposed, Libya’s mad dog Gaddafi fittingly gunned down in a sewer. And the struggle continues for reform in Bahrain, Yemenis fight for their rights, and brave and bullied Syrians [...]
The death of Mary Leakey – 9 December 1996
This article also appears on Dorian Cope’s blog On This Deity. No matter who we are and what we think, the beautiful truth is that we are all children of Africa. It was in no small part the painstaking work of Mary Leakey that revealed this. For more than 50 years under hot African skies, [...]
Easter Island stoneheads
A lifetime’s ambition was achieved last month when Moth and I visited Easter Island, the most isolated inhabited place on the planet, rightly famous for its giant stone sculptures. It was a joy to sit and sketch them. On this page of my sketchbook, I drew in the bougainvillea garland I was presented with when [...]
The death of Hernán Cortés – 2 December 1547
This article also appears on Dorian Cope’s blog On This Deity. “He came dancing across the water with his galleons and guns, Looking for the new world in that palace in the sun”- from Cortez the Killer by Neil Young Hernán (Hernando) Cortés was a glory-seeking, ruthless murderer capable of barbaric cruelty, who more or [...]
