We are tribal. Back in the day the tribes were smaller. Now we have cities of millions. It’s now so much harder to be community minded . It’s so much easier to feel insignificant and helpless to care for others , the environment and all manner of things. It was easier then but not impossible now – perhaps it’s best to try to do the small things .

If I mention that a painting is a favourite, I feel a little disloyal to other paintings. But I have a framed print of this one at home on display.

In the current world this is how buildings are constructed. Upon the apocalypse this is how they are deconstructed. Framed print on display in gallery.

Subject to me finding it. I love it. It was on my wall forever. Then a daughter visited. One benefit of abstract paintings, is this can also be displayed lengthwise. To me it is somewhat urban if looked at from an aerial view, from side on it’s a construction in a city.

I love the Adelaide Oval. Often I gravitate for a spell on the hill. It would be sweet regardless but I love that my great grandfather built the scoreboard.

In 1986 Malcolm Fraser wandered into the foyer of a seedy Memphis hotel with his pants down. It was at about, or perhaps exactly, that time that I began to like , even admire him – increasingly as the years wound on.

Anyway, it’s little known that on his way home from Memphis he visited Easter Island, to meet his distant relatives. Nine months later there was a population explosion of statues. Standing room only. You can look this up.

I love architecture. I love ancient arches. I love animals. Of all animals, I love dogs the most. But they didn’t exist back then. Dogs only came to earth in December 1960, when I was born.

I visited my great uncle’s grave in Northern France, and the area where his brother (my grandfather) fought with him in WWI. Trite to say I was mourning.

I was a stowaway aboard on a containership at the Port of Salerno in Southern Italy. Four hours later I was marched off the ship by a very unhappy captain. Eventually I slept on the wharf overnight. The following day I boarded another containership, we weathered a severe storm before arriving in Peraius in the Port of Athens.

Whilst at berth overlooking the Bay of Salamis I painted my depiction of the Naval battle between the victorious Greeks over the invading Persians, 480BC. Although I won the ancient history prize at school my father pointed out that they did not have sails but rowed in that battle. Dad was a realist painter.

In this painting the American Indians and the settlers of the Pilgrim join together in harmony , each contributing to peace and life. It is of course a fantasy . But it is what Australia managed in the latter half of the 20th Century , until we were led elsewhere. I appreciate that I have now made this painting unsaleable (assuming of course it was ever saleable).

Painted on containership in a port in Turkey. I love meeting people in faraway places and finding out that people are kind. In this instance generosity was to the fore. In somewhat embarrassing body language I asked the elderly Turkish stall keeper at the wharf where might be a toilet. Sensing the urgency, he shut up his stall and walked me 400 metres along the promenade to a toilet, happily chatting in Turkish and smiling. He insisted on paying the toilet attendant. He waited for me. Back at his small store I bought postcards for my daughters and one for me to remember.