beneath the waves

latest work... a lovely poolside private commission!
detail:
latest on the Rena oil spill disaster: "The Government admits it has "dropped the ball" by failing to sign up to an international convention that would have protected taxpayers by an additional $12 million for the cleanup of the Rena oil spill."

I'm not blaming the government, but i think this is a clear sign that their dreams of offshore oil drilling are ill-conceived. Protect our beautiful oceans!

NZ oil spill disaster - some facts

just a few things I've put together from reading online...

• "It emerged yesterday that on the day the Rena struck the reef, Maritime NZ declined an offer of two inflatable barges which could pump up to 100 tonnes of oil at a time."

• Maritime Union general secretary Joe Fleetwood said he had been calling on the New Zealand Government to buy an emergency oil spill response vessel "for years'' but to no avail. "Now we're caught with our pants down and now we're looking to (salvage company) Svitzer to get their clean-up vessels from Singapore.''
  
  
• "This is huge. It will take a long, long time to clean it up - we've never seen anything on this scale before. It could take years" - Sustainable Coastline's director Sam Judd.
  
  
• "We stand on the brink of disaster if the salvage goes wrong," said Shane Wasik, NZ Underwater Association president and a local diver.

• Our reckless centre-right gvernment are talking about using a toxic substance to clean up. Rick Steiner, a veteran of the Gulf of Mexico spill last year, said the dispersant Corexit 9500 was not suited to near-shore waters. According to the Alaska Community Action on Toxics, the use of Corexit during the Exxon Valdez oil spill caused people "respiratory, nervous system, liver, kidney and blood disorders"

Wakatipu again

Lake Ohau from above:


I return victorious from Queenstown, where me and Elliot painted out notorious backpacker bar "Altitude":

also got to go riding at Cardrona.. here's Els:
returned to Glenorchy...to go 4wding in "paradise", back to Arrowtown to unsuccesfully look for gold, and painted a couple extra pics for Base X Backpackers. Cheers guys!

Maungawhau

Also known as, Mt Eden... the beautiful dormant volcano i see out my window every day.

I didn't paint the eyes in the pic they were already on the wall, I thought they looked cool so left em in

art in the toilet

Here is a tour of the restrooms I painted at The Conservatory bar in Auckland's new North Wharf district...

some positive news on the future

here's a link to an easy to read PDF about some exciting and scary technologies being developed now that sound like science fiction, but in reality, they're coming soon...

and here's some interesting uses of nano-technology already here and on the way:

The Book of Seven Seals discovered

The Book of Seven Seals, as mentioned in the Book of Revelation, has been discovered a few years ago in Jordan and since been snatched away by an Isreali! It's been photographed but not studied apparently. I'm not exactly sure why it has twelve seals but hey.