RO

‘We came, We Raved, We Loved’, Swedish House Mafia...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 22:11:20 +0000

‘We came, We Raved, We Loved’, Swedish House Mafia at UMF Miami.
-when all else fails … DANCE!!!

What do you do when at the airport late at night? Head to the...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 05:23:44 +0000

What do you do when at the airport late at night? Head to the #bar! At #sfo heading to #Miami ! #ultra here we come!!! #redeye

#welcome to #sanfrancisco #flowers from rob :)

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 03:10:26 +0000

#welcome to #sanfrancisco #flowers from rob :)

Ahh, Iceland. In the summer of 2012, we hired a car and spent 10...

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 11:07:58 +0000

Ahh, Iceland. In the summer of 2012, we hired a car and spent 10 days driving around the country. It was absolutely breathtaking, the views, the people, such an inspiration.

Just checking my resolutions from last year! I’ve done...

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 23:23:42 +0000

Just checking my resolutions from last year! I’ve done well!

"I have never experienced as much Heartache as I did in 2012, but I PROMISE myself, 2013 is going to..."

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:18:42 +0000

“I have never experienced as much Heartache as I did in 2012, but I PROMISE myself, 2013 is going to make me smile the most yet.”

- Me

If you know me, you’ll also know my love for tim burton so...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:29:36 +0000

If you know me, you’ll also know my love for tim burton so this staircase of the laboutin shop in Paris made me smile crazily for a while. It’s not actually by the man himself but I’m sure you’ll agree, was somewhat inspired by him.

My completed Nara, until I can afford the real thing.

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:40:16 +0000

My completed Nara, until I can afford the real thing.

Cold Sundays are for painting.

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:08:12 +0000

Cold Sundays are for painting.

Hello kitty glasses! rawrring-roro: Weekend working...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:44:01 +0000

Hello kitty glasses!

rawrring-roro:

Weekend working cataloguing paintings is made even more enjoyable by these glasses!

Hello Kitty jet! #mustdo #hellokittyjet #evaairlines (Taken with...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:01:36 +0000

Hello Kitty jet! #mustdo #hellokittyjet #evaairlines (Taken with instagram)

Three works of art, including one by Pablo Picasso and another...

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:45:58 +0000

Mondrian

Picasso

Three works of art, including one by Pablo Picasso and another by Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, were stolen from Greece’s National Gallery on Monday, police said.

Thieves broke into the gallery in the early hours and snatched Picasso’s 1939 painting “Woman’s head,” donated to the Greeks by the artist in 1949, and Mondrian’s “Mill” dated 1905, police said.

They also took a sketch by Italian painter Guglielmo Caccia, which was donated to the gallery in 1907.

“It all happened in seven minutes,” said a police official who declined to be named.

To mislead the guard, the thieves activated the gallery’s alarm system several times before breaking into the building at 4:30 a.m. (0230 GMT). The guard turned off the alarm only to later spot one of the thieves through the motion detector.

Before escaping, the thief dropped another 1905 Mondrian painting, the “Landscape,” police said.

It was not clear how many people were involved in the theft. Police were looking for suspects and the art in Greece and abroad.

In October, police in Serbia recovered two paintings by Picasso stolen in 2008 from a gallery in Switzerland and worth millions of dollars.

Greece recovered in September a painting by Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens stolen from a museum in Belgium in 2001 and arrested two Greeks who tried to sell it to undercover police for about 1 million euros.

Finally sorting out catalogues from work! Building a...

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 23:12:02 +0000

Finally sorting out catalogues from work! Building a mini-library!

Back in London at my supermarket, the woman in front of me asked...

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 16:52:41 +0000

Back in London at my supermarket, the woman in front of me asked if I was ‘from the States?’. Judging by my groceries she said I appeared to be too healthy for London living. Made me smile.

2012 Resolutions. Bravo.

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:09:16 +0000

Wow. This is brave of me, posting my resolutions online. That’s because I probably won’t keep them … and even if I don’t, it won’t be the end of the world … at least the intention was there.

But, upon reflection, there are many things I do need to work on. My inner self, my character as well as my outer self and these things shouldn’t be resolutions because they need to be worked upon. So here is my think-aloud list for the year …

1. Learn to be less critical. - yes, I am a virgo and by nature of the heavens am the most vocal and brutal person. I need to learn how to criticise both myself and other less … this only leads to other negative emotions. ok.

2. Be less green-eyed. Stop being jealous, enjoy the amazing life I have and do not compare myself to others.

3. Run consistently. I often run to de-stress. But I need to up my game. Running = leaner body = feel gooooood + more shabu shabu and cookies oh and wine.

4. Say yes more often. Sometimes I coccoon myself too much and protect my mind, body and soul by saying ‘no’ too often. Say yes, risk more and care less.

5. Travel to one new place. Ok, my life is composed of air miles and flying to see rob in new york and san francisco, I’m not complaining, they’re great cities … BUT I need to see more of the world this year … some place new to provide me with fresh inspiration. Do it.

6. Decide where to live. ok, a big one. telling you now, it’s not going to happen.

Britain Bans the Export of a Rare Manet, Hoping to Find a U.K. Buyer With $44 Million

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 11:42:20 +0000

Three weeks ago, British culture minister Ed Vaizey placed a temporary export ban on Edouard Manet’s “Mademoiselle Claus” in the hopes that an institution or individual will purchase it and keep it in the country. It won’t come cheap, naturally: the buyer will need to come up with £28.4 million ($43.9 million).

In a statement, the department for culture, media and sport says that the export ban “will provide a last chance to raise the money to keep the painting in the United Kingdom.” The ban is valid through February 7, 2012, with the possibility of extending it for six months if someone expresses “serious intention” of raising the funds necessary to purchase the painting. John Singer Sargent bought the work from Manet’s estate after his death, taking it to the U.K. where it has remained ever since. The painting is now part of a private collection. It has not been revealed whether the current owner has already found a foreign buyer — the most likely scenario — or has simply expressed the intention of selling it, the Art Market Monitor reports.

According to the department for culture, media, and sport, “Mademoiselle Claus” was only shown in public once in the last century (at the National Gallery in 1983 for a Manet retrospective on the centenary of his death, according to the Guardian). Manet painted the work, which depicts the violinist Fanny Claus, in preparation for his painting “The Balcony,” now in the collection of the Musée d’Orsay. Inspired by Goya’s “Majas on a Balcony,” “The Balcony” shocked the public when it was shown at the Paris Salon of 1869. Viewers found it odd, crudely realistic, and in bad taste. (Of course, Manet’s reputation has changed dramatically since then: During the Musée d’Orsay’s recent Manet show, curator Stéphane Guéguan told ARTINFO France that the artist’s style was a kind of “exploded Impressionism.”)

In its recommendation to the culture minister, the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest referred to the portrait’s “outstanding aesthetic importance… and outstanding significance” for French painting. Although the painting is unfinished, committee member Lowell Libson said in a statement that its incomplete state “adds to its interest, revealing the artist’s creative process, while emphasizing the haunting beauty of the portrait.”

The pricetag of £28.4 million ($43.9 million) is higher than Manet’s current auction record, which was set at Sotheby’s London in June 2010 when a rare self-portrait by the artist fetched £22.4 million ($33.2 million), after having been estimated between £20-£30 million.

Christmas calls for some baking naturally so I filled the house...

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 20:43:40 +0000

Christmas calls for some baking naturally so I filled the house with the delicious smell of fresh brownie. Using a recipe by Lorraine Pascale, it incorporates oreos!!! What pre-Christmas diet? ;)

Am honoured to be invited as a guest to this dinner. I have no...

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:08:52 +0000

Am honoured to be invited as a guest to this dinner. I have no idea who would pay to turn up and have dinner with me but we shall see!

London Love

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:57:32 +0000

I very rarely vent on here but this morning’s tube ride had me literally steaming. The Eurozone seems to be slipping into chaos, daily headlines reiterate the dangers of Greece defaulting, the possibility of a referendum, a slip back in recession and more job losses to come … it makes me wonder at times, why I am so attached to this city. London for me, used to, and still has in many ways, have it all. But more recently, trips abroad have had me thinking about the prospect of living in another country. Work would like to ship me off to Hong Kong, I passed on this opportunity months ago, placing my family and personal ties before my career … BUT, now, the prospect of Asia seems attractive.

This morning on my platform in the London drizzle, I waited ten minutes for my train only to be greeted by a carriage of commuters who had morphed into sardines. The temperature and moisture in the air had steamed up the windows adding to the sardine analogy. There was one seat left which was charged at by a fellow Chinese person … (and here I nod my head to him for racing to the seat and not being so chivalrous – who am I to expect that every gentleman – or not, as this case may be, will offer their seat to me …)

Rattling on southbound, the old man behind me sneezed and I grimaced. It was an almighty sneeze and I dared not turn around for fear I might see him without a handkerchief or worse off, find out that he might be far closer to me than I imagined … and so, I held my breath in that immature fashion for as long as I could so I wouldn’t breathe in his germ invasion.

The tall African woman in front in her Michelin-man inspired puffa-jacket was intently reading her Metro unaware that her body was suffocating me whilst the English woman would gently prod me with her novel now and then in tune with the mechanical rhythm of the train …. I closed my eyes. Today, was in fact, a good day. There are some days when things get really bad … for example …

If I get to Euston at around 8.44am, there is always a guy in my spot who has shaggy, greasy hair … no, I’m not being rude but one look at him and the idea of being pushed up against him in the train is enough for me to want to start work one hour earlier. I first noticed him on Tuesday. Standing there, short, with a square rucksack on his shoulders. I noticed quickly something wasn’t right … his movements were frantic and illogical and he was doing something to his face. I looked at him again- he was picking his nose. And not just delicately picking but a real root around … my stomach turned … finger up in the nostril and then in his mouth … horrid. The train arrived and I couldn’t bear the thought of being near him … so I walked away and promptly missed getting on the next two trains. I saw him again the day after … this time I didn’t even bother waiting. He came up behind me and upon sensing him I let him have my spot and hurried along.

So perhaps Hong Kong might be my next move. You know … no Eurozone, booming Chinese economy, lower taxes … just Sars, material obsession and lack of holidays …. Hmm.

New York, New York!

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:15:13 +0100

Am leaving the hustle and bustle and tiredness of deadline month for New York tomorrow … and a long weekend of Art awaits. First stop is the much anticipated collaboration between the Christie’s and Murakami, previewing at the Gagosian and then the Impressionist and Modern view … and off course, plenty of oysters and a dinner at Peter Luger’s to see in the weekend.