Making a Compleat Gentleman

West Wycombe Manor was set in a beautiful Park and the perfect setting for a man of means who also enjoyed the good life. Its colonaded west front is highly unusual, for a climate like England recalling perhaps many happy times spent lazing in the loggia of an Italian Palazzo. While smaller than most of his friends country houses today it is a perfect film set for eighteenth century period films because it encapsulates and reflects in architecture the society of a time when young men of privilege went in passionate pursuit of civilised life. Is it the perfect Temple to Taste of a Compleat Gentleman?

Evolution of Art, Design and Style – Antiquity to Avatar

‘Just as a palate can be educated to appreciate fine wine so too can both the eye and the ear be educated to distinguish the rare from the ordinary, the exquisite from the mundane’. Pare Keiha, Associate Professor, Dean – Tumuaki AUT, Auckland NZ

THE EVOLUTION ART, DESIGN & STYLE
ARTISTIC TASTE – ANTIQUITY – AVATAR
[...]

iPAD…an apple a day keeps the mind active

Apple is relying on ease of use,  crisp, clean wide angle and accessible viewing display to carve out a whole new market for its new wiz bang wonder iPad. Its e reader capabilities are tipped to be the key to its success over the next decade.
It was my eldest son  who first started teaching me [...]

An affair of state…wise men needed now!

Perhaps the getting of wisdom is when we realize, despite eons of learning, that in the grand scheme of things we really know very little at all.  Carolyn McDowall

January 6 is the climax of the twelve days of Christmas known as The Epiphany.
For early ‘followers of the way’ gathering in the catacombs, the underground burial [...]

That which we are we are…new year’s eve reflection

We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson was a controversial figure in his own time. His poem Ulysses,  [...]

Having a life like other people…pass it on!

It seems to me that it is always a perfect time of year for an Alan Bennett celebration. England’s local hero highly acclaimed author and playwright Alan Bennett will celebrate fifty years as a writer and performer in 2010.
His incredible wit and stylish writing first surfaced with his 1960 satirical stage revue Beyond the Fringe.  [...]

Favourite Books – The Cello Suites – A tale of musical derring do

Along with my passion for early music is an enjoyment and love of music written for my favourite instrument the violencello. Often shortened to Cello, I would ride through storm and tempest to attend performances played by such renowned modern cellists Steven Isserlis and Peter Wispelway, especially when they perform with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
The [...]

Favourite Books…Time Traveller’s Wife

I must confess to being one of those people who reads books after they have passed their current popularity phase and, often on a plane.  It has never been intentional, but about finding time and in some cases, having missed it when it was about.
Whatever the reason in a lot of ways it has often [...]

Weaving the Threads of Destiny

Tapestry and embroidery are both forms of textile art. However both have very different techniques and the difference is not always understood.

Chinoiserie

I went to dine
With a friend of mine
Who dined off porcelain plates
Of a kind so rare
That it stirred your hair
To think of their possible fates

For some were Ming
and others were Ch’ing
(Whatever those names may be)
And the food was divine
And the wine, the wine
Intoxicated me.