Venetian maker Jacopo Verzelini was bought to England by Huguenot Jean Carré to improve the quality of glass being produced at his London workshop. After a troubled start Verzelini acquired royal patronage in 1575 when Queen Elizabeth granted him a licence ‘to make drinking glasses in the manner of Murano, on the undertaking that he bring up in the said art and knowledge our natural subjects’.

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20th century Pop Art Prince Andy Warhol knew that works of art meet many needs, including that of the ‘artist’. He didn’t want to pay the wages of art or beauty himself but to provide the lifestyle he wanted to enjoy. He concentrated on graphic works because he knew they would exhibit more than normal significance in a world rapidly being dominated by emerging technologies.

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Join us for CLASSIC, the SECOND part of our four (4) segment course of study The Evolution of Art, Design & Style CLASSIC: ARTIST & ARTISANS Renaissance to Restoration This part of the course (Days 11 – 20) covers the periods from the rebirth of humanism in Italy during the fourteenth century to the restoration [...]

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For the best in class, Noma is the number one place to eat at right now in the world. The Australian Masterchef 2011 judges confirmed this to their Australia wide audience during the grand finale as Noma’s Celebrity Chef Rene Redzepi set the task for Kate and Michael to complete. Imagine tickets for a tour in Scandinavia will book out, which is a good thing for Europe in the current economic milieu.

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An evening of traditional elegance, say at the White House or Government House Australia, still requires a perfection of planning and wise organisation so that it appears not to be contrived at all.

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Long before Rome became the centre of a great Empire it was only a collection of small settlements founded on seven hills above the River Tiber. The lofty vantage points acted as a defensive standpoint from invaders and protected its inhabitants from the malaria and the other diseases that thrived on the marshy valley floor.

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All cultures on earth, just like individuals, have distinct modes of existence and creation stories are something they all have in common in a logical attempt to rationalise the presence of humans on earth. ‘In the beginning’, the ancient Greek oral Poet Hesiod says somewhere between 750 and 650 years before the Christ event (BCE), ‘there was Khaos, vast and dark.

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StreetSmart is a social profit organisation founded in 2002 with a mission to help the homeless. It is all about the art of what is possible and brings many benefits to others. Would you assist and also inspire others to help support this worthy cause?

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This is the starting segment for our course of study the evolution of western art, design, style and culture antiquity until today. It is surveyed in chronological order from antiquity to the contemporary age with respect to intellectual and philosophical ideas, other cultural influences and social change.

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The romantic ideal of ancient Greece as a centre for youth, energy, toleration and intellectual freedom, a place where beauty and nature came together as a flawless entity is true however it does ignore all the other uncomfortable facts of life at that time. But this is how it is with memories of those who have passed on, that in time it is only their goodness we remember and as we go on a journey in search of an Arcadian ideal that never was real.

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Sydney is amazing really. It never fails to engender me with a new sense of hope. It’s something in the air here. The people are confident, sure of their own worth and surging ahead, embracing change, which as in any progressive society is constant. They don’t look back as much as they look forward, trying to build on tradition while imagining and inventing the new.

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Sharing an evening meal at the end of a busy day for anyone should always be surely one of the delights of life. After all, people have to eat. So why not make each time we do a celebration of life. During my three sons growing up years it was a major priority and part of our family ethic that we all sat down at table, television off, to share a meal together at night so we could talk about and share the many facets of the day.

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As a birthday treat my girlfriend took me to High Tea last Sunday. We couldn’t get into the Windsor Hotel at Melbourne, where the festival of taking tea in the afternoon has been an ongoing tradition since 1883 when it was first opened during the Victorian era.

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In facing the crisis of the global economic downturn a brave group in London have come up with Masterpiece London, a whole new way of marketing fine quality wares by showcasing the most covetable objects in the world: traditional and modern, old and new, from the finest of fine and decorative art to the best of wines, classic cars, jewellery and contemporary design.

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