Remembering PRESTAGS

Chivalry

A Dream of the Past, Sir Isumbras at the Ford, John Everett Millais (1857).

Napoleon at Borodino

When a landscape artist goes to war

Python went to the Streeton exhibition at the NSW Art gallery earlier this month. Arthur Streeton was a brilliant, impressionist landscape painter who never really made it overseas. When he was in Britain, World War 1 broke out. He was not accepted into the army, but late in the war managed to get a posting as a war artist.

I was struck by this peaceful picture of the French countryside. However, the plumes of smoke are from four allied barrage balloons a German fighter had just shut down. A close examination shows only two parachutes. The drama of the scene is completely obscured by they relaxed use of colours and setting.

he will be remembered for his Australian landscapes. This is where Python grew up in Sydney.

Farewell to Batemans Bay

Here is the dawn photo for Spetz. Although taken at 6:20am, the sun was up and behind clouds.

There is some pink in the clouds above the island. but drowned out by the other colours. There was one patch of red though, from a final visitor.

 

Here be Dragons

One reason for a future FMW in Sydney - we can go photographing dragons! This is an Australian Water Dragon. They are prolific in Manly, but found around the harbour.

His camouflage is pretty perfect for the rock he is on.

Decadence

I think I like decline and fall - probably my Roman heritage. This is the old coal loader on Sydney harbour. Coal was brought into here from Newcastle and loaded onto trolleys as fuel for steamships in Sydney - up until the 80s apparently. Around the time we discovered that playing wargames was more fun than writing theses.

The rust, the brokenness, the bits of nature trying to poke through: I find it quite restful to look at. One day this will be the same:

Hopefully James Packer's Erection will be gone by then

An uncommon sight in Croydon

I am intrigued than when we moved house 17 years ago, we moved about 6 kilometres but completely changed our avian niche:

• Australian miners for Indian Mhynahs and wattle birds
• King parrots for rosellas
• Pluvers for mudkarks

But no replacement for Kookaburras. I saw this pair on a long walk - about 3 km from home in Enfield - and snapped because they are as rare to me now as a passenger jet.

Clever, but will irritate my mates no end

I noticed an odd flag flying on the walk home from the office earlier this week. It took me several seconds to deconstruct it.

I think it is a clever bit of fun, and, for me, symbolises pride in the past and the future. I think my mates will bitterly disagree and call for a homeland security visit. 

Vive la difference!

Let us never become unable to debate!

Attempting to match MiLord

Getting in the car today i noticed a bee working the bottlebrush. I set the phone to close up and took 20 shots. I could not get the focus right and often blurred the flower. MiLord is the master.

Puti, Eat your heart out!

VIEWER WARNING: The great censor should close his eyes now!

Puti needed photoshop to look this good. I look good because I love rubbing my deck! The Chump need not apply.

Existential Question #1: Is there a Dog? My previous dog (Pipster) did get stick on the deck a couple of oils ago. I take no chances this time around. As Julius Caesar, Pontifex Maximus, would say, "A Dog that is not restrained and controlled, is not worth having!"

 

Dog, death and life

Trying not to lean too far forward

Hard to get without scale, but about 10m down from a crumbling edge.

If you put a phone in the hands of a Wanker...

Amazing Blue Skies

Her beauty and her terror; The wide brown land for me!

Sunset light reflecting off wet sand

Note: No cabbages were harmed in the taking of this photo.

I needed a better camera

One day a phone will have a decent zoom

I spotted this on a long evening walk. Not the kind of walk where I would carry a camera. And Toby is not the kind of dog that assists to photography or sound recording.

For the record, this is the Cook's river in Croydon Park. My old Vinnies president (who flew Spitfires in WW2) remembered that Aborigines still lived along this river when he was a kid.

Waves Breaking on Seaweed and Rocks

Missing the daily beach walk

Where to Shoalhaven meets the sea

Crookhaven headland in the centre, Shoalhaven river on the left.

Is this the best photo I have ever taken?

Margo thinks I am being too kitsch, but the water, rock, footprint and framing. It was a complete fluke though; as I pulled the camera out for a dolphin shot, it went click.

Dolphins at dawn

Reflections in the sand

I tried to get some reflections on the draining waves. I think I would have got some excellent ones if the dog had given me more time.

Beloved does better Moon shots

The sky did not look this colour when I took it.

Community Sport is back

Morning sun breaking through the cloud bank

I like the way the line forms the faintest of orange lines along the sea. I used the two trees to frame the line cos I am a Woofter.

Moonlight on the waves

Fun by the Sea!

Seaweed at first light

Easter Day dinner Peter & Carl

Peter & Carl had a nice Easter dinner, with Carl driving the camera remote.

BBQ lamb chops (and Kanga Bangas too)

roast vegies

Carl food [sigh]

at the table [note Prestags Grand Tour shirt, and Lexi nuzzling in hope of a hand out ...]

cheers! [Sparkling red & creaming soda]

Carl decided it should be by candlelight

Carl's egg/bunny haul

 

Good Friday 2

Some photographs from Segovia Cathedral, Spain, taken 16 January 2018.

Good Friday

Some photographs from Toledo Cathedral, Spain, taken 13 January 2018.

Wonder of the Modern World?

With the heat this week, the sliding fence on my property would not open - a plank had warped so much the gate would no longer slide behind the gate.

My first thought was to sell the house. Unfortunately, I'd still be expected to remove my car from the property - and I needed the car for a jaunt to Canberra for a PWWW in a few days. However, my febrile imagination suggested that I need only knock down the fence, and my car would be free. As I wandered around the back yard trying to decide where to start this enterprise, I say a bit of discarded timber from a repair job I had done a few months back.

"When you find you have wood in the afternoon, look for a screw."
  - Python Imperator

I suddenly had a flash in inspiration - the old juxtaposed with the new, the vertical being tamed by the horizontal, the long finding purpose with the short, the permanent being rescued by the temporary.

Although I had duct tape at hand, I only needed it to align the cross plank. And behold, I thing of beauty comes into existence!

I love the endless possibilities that come from working with wood.
 - Python Imperator

Note the clever use of recessed screws to hide the underlying structure - leaving the timber to hover as if by magic.

Although the year has only just begun, I wonder if there might be a Time News Magazine this year discussing genius and featuring this work.

Magnificent Paintings - Pavel Ryzhenko (1970-2014)

A link to these great paintings and more

 

Tota pulchra es, Maria, Et macula originalis non est in te.

Thou art all  fair, O Mary, The original stain is not in thee.

The Immaculate Conception, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770).

The original is in the Museo Del Prado in Madrid.

 

Per tuam immaculatam Conceptionem, o Maria, redde purum corpus meum et sanctam animam meam.

By thine Immaculate Conception, O Mary, make my body pure and my spirit holy.