Tenacity
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Oil on canvas
914 × 609mm
36 × 24 inches
Completed 2025
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This amazing writer published a book back in 1988.
After six months, a large bookstore said it had sold 3 copies, two were to the same person.
The publisher cut the author free, cancelled the contract but let him keep the copyright to the book.
The author was 41 and, in his own words, desperate.
He did not lose faith in his book, instead he started again, and found a new publisher.
Finally, it started to sell in his native Brazil.
8 months later an American in Brazil wanted to translate the book and help the author find a publisher in the United States.
The initial launch in the US was also soft, until Bill Clinton was seen with a copy, then Madonna then Will Smith, then it spread to the universities and suddenly everyone was talking about it.
The book hit the New York Times bestseller list, and stayed there for 300 weeks!
It has since been translated into more than 80 languages and sold over 65 million copies.
So thank you Paulo Coelho for sticking with The Alchemist!
The gorilla needs a little time out too
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Oil on canvas
30 × 40cm
Completed 2025
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Sometimes you don’t want to think too much, sometimes you don’t want to wreck your brain working on something that will take months to finish, sometimes you don’t want to get too close to the details.
Sometimes you just want to put some music on and paint something for fun…
Sometimes the gorilla needs a little time out too
Something You Have To Deal With
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Oil on canvas
762 × 762mm
30 × 30 inches
Completed 2025
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I never, ever, thought I’d be painting Keith Richards.
I had been working on another painting about the subjective experience of music. This painting had a spin off where I started looking into what other artists had said about certain topics.
It turns out Keith can be quite philosophical about the creation of art. He once said ‘money is something that you have to deal with, but it should never be the driver of creativity’.
Allow yourself to be surprised
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Oil on canvas
914 × 610mm
36 × 24 inches
Completed 2025
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Allow yourself to be surprised by the process - Rick Rubin
I’ve been working on a large oil painting about music and the experience it brings to humans (or do humans bring experience to music?). Through the process I have taken a step back every now and again to paint some of the people that inspired me to start the original painting in the first place. As it turns out, that process has been surprisingly fun.
Rick Rubin is the producer behind more amazing music than Mozart (yes, I just said that). He’s not exactly a man in the shadows, but he does not seek the recognition of rockstars either. He’s certainly an insightful and interesting person worthy of a canvas.
Institutional Chaos And The Inspired You
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Oil on canvas
2030 x 1780mm
Completed 2024
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When educational institutions are infiltrated by ideologues that dogmatically preach their opinions, without room for discussion or debate, the educational system itself loses its strength (continue reading)
Quiet Does The Process Grow
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Oil on canvas
2030 x 1780mm
Completed 2024
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The act of reading a book requires a certain discipline—an investment of time and attention. Reading allows for contemplation, reflection, and synthesis of ideas in ways that skimming or listening cannot replicate (continue reading).
Knowledge Reality & Existence
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Oil on canvas
2030 x 1780mm
Completed 2024
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institutions should be open to a little lunacy, because sometimes the best ideas come from a bit of craziness. I concede that this can often lead to spillover effects—where things get out of hand, go wrong, and require correction (continue reading)
Seeds Are For The Birds To Spread
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Oil on canvas
2030 x 1780mm
Completed 2024
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Passing on not only knowledge but also the skills required to critique and analyse an idea, and to understand it from multiple perspectives, is the intergenerational inoculation against bad ideas taking hold (continue reading)
The Inner West Life
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Oil on canvas
1800 x 1000mm
Completed 2024
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‘The Inner West Life’ is a commissioned painting that was a huge amount of fun to work on. It’s not every day you get asked to fill a brief that contains such an eclectic list including city landmarks, parks, buildings, pubs, people, and blind dog that gets pushed around in a pram and wears a grey jumper. On top of that there was also a ‘cat-in-the-hat’ character which has been the one dog’s favourite toy since it was a puppy! (read more)
I Will Make You Tea
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Oil on canvas
40 x 70 inches
Completed 2024
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What is left in a relationship when everything that can be removed is stripped away? What is left to hold on to? When removing the aesthetic of human beauty ideals, clothing, fashion and all concept of accumulated possessions, what remains? I would argue that what is left is how each person thinks. If you find a person’s thinking attractive, even when you disagree, then undertaking even the simplest things in life together becomes enjoyable (read more).
The Organic Markets
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Oil on canvas
40 x 70 inches
Completed 2024
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What is left in a relationship when everything that can be removed is stripped away? What is left to hold on to? When removing the aesthetic of human beauty ideals, clothing, fashion and all concept of accumulated possessions, what remains? I would argue that what is left is how each person thinks. If you find a person’s thinking attractive, even when you disagree, then undertaking even the simplest things in life together becomes enjoyable (read more).
Walking Through The Dog Park
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Oil on canvas
40 x 70 inches
Completed 2024
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What is left in a relationship when everything that can be removed is stripped away? What is left to hold on to? When removing the aesthetic of human beauty ideals, clothing, fashion and all concept of accumulated possessions, what remains? I would argue that what is left is how each person thinks. If you find a person’s thinking attractive, even when you disagree, then undertaking even the simplest things in life together becomes enjoyable (read more).
The Dessert Tree
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Oil on canvas
40 x 70 inches
Completed 2024
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What is left in a relationship when everything that can be removed is stripped away? What is left to hold on to? When removing the aesthetic of human beauty ideals, clothing, fashion and all concept of accumulated possessions, what remains? I would argue that what is left is how each person thinks. If you find a person’s thinking attractive, even when you disagree, then undertaking even the simplest things in life together becomes enjoyable (read more).