Tasmania!

Tasmania is a beautiful surprise for those who dare adventure to the southeast corner of Australia. Home to Platypus, Echidna, wallabies and the infamous Tasmanian Devil, this incredible place is a paradise for anyone seeking the extraordinary. Every corner I turned offered a new a spectacular view. We landed in Launceston, in the north central…

That Melbourne Vibe

Ninety minutes in the air from Sydney to Melbourne provided an expensive lesson in Aussie air travel. I’ll save the wrenching details and skip to the end result…won’t ever fly Tiger Airways again. Thankfully Australia has a lot of other, better airlines that connect all of the major cities. Arriving in Melbourne was actually a…

Katoomba Winter Magic Festival

On the advice from our new mate, Simon, the best host you could ever want in a hotel manager, we took a day trip out of Sydney into the Blue Mountains to the small town of Katoomba for the WinterMagic festival. From Simon’s description I imagined a fusion of Trekkie convention, Costume Party, and Steampunk…

Sydney Rocks

Walking around Sydney is more of a visual feast than exercise. It is much like San Francisco with its steep hills and big bridge over the bay, but it is so clean and so friendly that it is hard to imagine it is real. Certainly the 2000 Olympics had an impact with construction of incredible…

Small world

Believe it or not, one can be in New York, Los Angeles and Sydney, Australia on the same day. Well, at least in the same 24 hour period. There is an international date line issue that confuses things and eats whole calendar dates. I missed Father’s Day entirely this year. My kids called me before…

“Blown Away” mural by Paul Jackson

At the southeast corner of Broadway and Hitt Street in Columbia MO, you’ll find the Alpine shop, featuring a new mural on its west wall. My crew, (mostly family), spent the last two weeks painting “Blown Away”, a 16×68′ design that is stopping traffic already. I love ambitious projects, and this one occurred at a…

Back in the Land of Ah’s

It was 4 years ago that I last came to Manhattan, Kansas for a workshop with a unique group of friends that paint together. This group seems to value friendship over ego, perhaps more than any other I’ve met. They pull each other forward as artists, and their growth is tremendous. This week was a…

Mid-Southern Watercolor Society

Painting with the Mid-Southern watercolor society was a nice treat! (it sure felt good to be back where people “talk right”.) The Southern hospitality and charm were both in full swing for this fast and furious glass workshop. We had to race to finish this complicated demo in time, but the results speak for the…

Miami Watercolor Society

Just home from Southeast Asia and filled with inspiration, I immediately had to head out again to judge a show, give a demo and workshop with the Miami watercolor society. With jetlag and daylight savings time, one might think I should have been exhausted, but I was bouncing with energy from the previous adventure, and…

Tokyo Meandering

Walking the streets of Tokyo this past week has been a dream. It is much like New York City, but larger, cleaner and more crowded. The other differences are quite noticeable as well. Fashion seems to lean toward the bizarre “Lolita” trend for teenagers and twenty-somethings. I saw no homeless, no panhandlers, no rudeness or…