Jungle Fever (1991): review: 6/10

A married black architect begins a relationship with his temp, a woman of Italian origins: this annoys both his wife, and his paramours family. He also leaves his job on failing to be promoted to the partnership.

The various narrative lines are slickly knitted together to illustrate the effect of racism on romantic relationships.

But the message of the film is too obvious to form the basis of a feature film , and therefore leaves one with the suspicion that it was made more to provoke debate in secondary schools than to entertain the wider public.

Do the Right Thing (1989): review: 8/10

Set in a lower class Brooklyn neighbourhood during some hot summer days, this film focusses on a pizzeria and local racial tensions, primarily between blacks and Italians, but also including hapless Hispanics and Koreans.

Though the film is well acted and lively in style, the script is pedantic in its relentless tracing of the racial issues. It presents a very unsympathetic image of blacks, who are shown variously as envious, promiscuous, sloppy, hostile, irresponsible, lazy, argumentative, drunken and destructive.

A chair and my white coat

A chair and my white coat, oil on card, 8.7 x 10.3 cm  SOLD

Praia Mole: the sea

xPraia Mole- the sea, oil on card, 7.9 x 6.5 cm  AVAILABLE

Smaller than a credit card, and almost painful to paint, peering inwards.

I owe something the American genius Albert Pinkham Ryder, and to the concentrated effects of many engravings.

A Brazillian house; pochade carriers

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A Brazillian house, oil on card, 12.5 x 9.4 cm

Painted within the grounds of UDSC, a good place to go when it's raining because there are buildings and pavillions which offer good views, and where one can work away fairly happily.

This house is fairly typical of many here.

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Here are the pochade carriers again, having been given one coat of blue enamel to protect them from rain:

Nocturne- Lampost

Nocturne- lampost, oil on card, 13. 6 x 9.9 cm

I started painting thinking of the night sky as posessing one, uniform colour, but as I progressed say that it contained many hues, and that even clouds were visible.

This is the view from one of my windows. I don't have access to a car right now, and I feel unsafe going out painting at night. Perhaps I shouldn't worry: Florianopolis isn't a dangerous place, at least not in Brazillian terms.

Transporting pochades

The primed supports I shall take to Malta and Italy will be mostly be a standard 14 x 9.5 cm:

These little holders are designed to hold the pictures in place while I travel about so they dont get smudged. I have made ten: the pictures will dry within 5 days and can them be packed more closely.

I think I will paint them with enamels to protect them against rain.