A stroll with Xenia after lunch

A walk at a park in North Sydney. Another gorgeous winters day.

Before our stroll, we had lunch at Greenhouse in Crow's Nest. It's a franchise that does the most amazing Asian salads.

Lighthouses

"I can think of no other edifice constructed by man as altruistic as a lighthouse. They were built only to serve."  George Bernard Shaw

Why I love lighthouses

There has always been something about lighthouses that draws me in. They carry the weight of history, standing through storms, wars, changing coastlines and countless human stories. Each one has watched generations come and go, quietly fulfilling the purpose for which it was built. They are monuments not to power or glory, but to service.

Perhaps that is why they feel so deeply symbolic. A lighthouse does not force its light on anyone; it simply shines, offering guidance to those who choose to navigate by it. There is something profoundly beautiful in that image. And then there is their sheer visual presence. Perched on rugged cliffs, lonely islands or windswept headlands, they are among the most photogenic structures ever created—where engineering, landscape, history and metaphor come together in a way that never fails to stir my imagination.

Map of lighthouses I've photographed

All posts tagged "lighthouse"

• All

Sydney

• Barrenjoey Lighthouse  (Palm Beach)
• Hornby Lighthouse (Watsons Bay)
• Macquarie Lighthouse  (Vaucluse)
• Cape Bowling Green Lighthouse  (Pyrmont)
• Bradleys Head
• Robertsons Point Lighthouse  (Cremorne)
• Flagstaff Point Lighthouse & Breakwater Lighthouse   (Wollongong)

Australia wide

• Kiama  (NSW)
• Point Perpendicular  (Jervis Bay, NSW)
• Great Ocean Road  (Victoria)
• Freycinet  (Tasmania)
• Nobby Lighthouse  (Newcastle, NSW)

South Africa

• Cape Point  (Cape Town)
• Green Point  (Cape Town)
• Kalk Bay  (Cape Town)
• Port St Johns  (Transkei)

⬇︎ Keep scrolling for all posts tagged as “Lighthouses”

Great movies starring lighthouses

Lighthouses are my current photography project, and over the past few months I've found myself increasingly fascinated by their history, architecture, and symbolism. They've also reminded me just how often they appear in cinema—not merely as dramatic backdrops, but as central characters in their own right. Their isolation, mystery, and enduring presence make them perfect settings for stories about hope, obsession, revelation, and the human condition. Here are two films that use lighthouses to unforgettable effect.

Shutter Island (2010)

Although Shutter Island is best remembered as a psychological thriller, its lighthouse is one of the film's most powerful and enduring images. Perched on the edge of the island, it looms over the story as a place of mystery, fear, and hidden truths. For much of the film, the lighthouse represents everything the protagonist believes is being concealed from him, drawing both him and the audience towards its secrets. By the end, it becomes clear that the lighthouse is not simply a location but a symbol of the film's deeper themes of reality, illusion, and the stories we tell ourselves to avoid painful truths. Few films have used a lighthouse so effectively as both a dramatic setting and a psychological metaphor.

The Lighthouse (2019)

Few films have made a lighthouse feel as mysterious and compelling as The Lighthouse (2019). Directed by Robert Eggers and filmed in stark black and white, it tells the story of two lighthouse keepers, brilliantly played by Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, whose isolation gradually gives way to obsession, paranoia, and madness. The lighthouse is far more than a setting—it becomes the film's central character and its greatest mystery, representing knowledge, power, temptation, and the unknowable. It's an unsettling, hypnotic film that stays with you long after the credits roll.

Wollongong's two lighthouses

Wollongong is unique on Australia's east coast in having two historic lighthouses standing within sight of one another. Set against the sweeping backdrop of the Pacific Ocean, dramatic cliffs, and the Illawarra Escarpment, they create one of the country's most picturesque coastal scenes. I was very excited to spend a couple of hours here photographing the lighthouses and enjoying the town.

Flagstaff Point Lighthouse

Flagstaff Point Lighthouse is the best-known landmark in Wollongong and one of the most recognisable lighthouses on the New South Wales coast. Standing on Flagstaff Hill at the entrance to Wollongong Harbour, it was completed in 1936 to improve navigation into the increasingly important industrial port of Port Kembla. The lighthouse was one of the first in New South Wales to be fully automated, reflecting advances in lighthouse technology during the early twentieth century. Today it continues to operate as an active navigational aid while also attracting thousands of visitors each year. Its commanding position offers panoramic views of the coastline, the harbour, and the Illawarra Escarpment, making it one of the region's most photographed locations.

Breakwater Lighthouse

The Breakwater Lighthouse is Wollongong's oldest lighthouse and one of the city's most treasured heritage landmarks. Completed in 1872, it was built at the end of the harbour breakwater to guide ships safely into Wollongong Harbour during a period of rapid growth in coastal shipping. For more than a century it served as a vital navigational aid before being superseded by the larger Flagstaff Point Lighthouse in 1936 and decommissioned in 1974.

By the 1970s, years of neglect had left the lighthouse in such poor condition that demolition was seriously considered. The proposal prompted a strong public response, with the Wollongong community rallying to save the landmark. Local organisations campaigned for its preservation and contributed to its restoration in 1978–79, with further restoration work completed in the early 2000s. Thanks to those efforts, the Breakwater Lighthouse remains a beautifully restored reminder of Wollongong's maritime heritage and an enduring symbol of the community's commitment to preserving its history.

I was especially excited to discover that Wollongong is one of the few places where you can photograph two historic lighthouses in a single frame. Standing on Flagstaff Hill and seeing both the Flagstaff Point Lighthouse and the Breakwater Lighthouse together was a real treat. As someone who loves photographing lighthouses, it felt like capturing two chapters of Australia's maritime history in a single image.

Art and Culture

 Art does not reproduce what we see. It makes us see. Paul Klee

Art

• Favourite artists
• Art exhibits
• Art Gallery of NSW
• Contemporary Art Museum
• Sculpture
• Grafitti & street art
• Exhibits
• Photography exhibits

Shows & Concerts

• Shows
• Stage musicals
• Theatre
• Burlesque
• Comedy clubs
• Concerts
• Live music
• Cinema

⬇︎ Keep scrolling for all posts tagged as “Art”

Quotes about lighthouses

One of the reasons I love lighthouses is that they are such a powerful metaphor for shining your own light. This comes through in these wonderful quotes I sourced.

Lighthouses serve simply by standing there and shining

• Lighthouses are more helpful than churches. Benjamin Franklin
• A holy life will produce the deepest impression. Lighthouses blow no horns; they only shine. Dwight L. Moody
• Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining. Anne Lamott
• I can think of no other edifice constructed by man as altruistic as a lighthouse. They were built only to serve. George Bernard Shaw
• A lighthouse is not interested in who gets its light! It just gives it without thinking! Giving light is its nature! Mehmet Murat Ildan
• A lighthouse doesn't save the ships; it doesn't go out and rescue them, it's just this pillar that helps to guide people home. Lea Michele
• What does a lighthouse do? It never moves. It cannot hike up its rocky skirt and dash into the ocean to rescue the foundering ship. It cannot calm the waters or clear the shoals. It can only cast light into the darkness. It can only point the way. Yet, through one lighthouse, you guide many ships. Show this old lighthouse the way.  Lisa Wingate

Lighthouses comfort and protect

• ...a lighthouse in the distance shows a cheerful gleaming eye... J. F. Dahlgren
• The lighthouse shines across the sea; The homing fieldfares sing for glee: 'Behold the shore!'  Ada Cambridge
• The lighthouse that stands unintentionally stoic and tall and lights the way for those out at sea.  Buffy Sammons
• A lighthouse keeps sailors from danger, to navigate from danger out there. The light is a comforting thing to see.  Catherine Drinker Bowen

Every lighthouse has a story

• Lighthouses are not just stone, brick, metal, and glass. There's a human story at every lighthouse; that's the story I want to tell.  Elinor DeWire

Your true self is a lighthouse

• Is the beam from a lighthouse affected by howling wind and rain? It remains perfectly steadfast and unaffected by the storm. Your true self is like that. Nothing can ever harm you once you are consciously aware that it is so.  Vernon Howard

Be like a lighthouse by shining your light

• An awake heart is like a lighthouse helping others to find a safe way home.  Rolf van der Wind
• Man must behave like a lighthouse; he must shine day and night for the goodness of everyman. Mehmet Murat Ildan
• I feel that we’re all lighthouses, and my job is to shine my light as brightly as I can to the darkness.  Jim Carrey
• Be the lighthouse that bears the torment of the storm, but never forget to show the saving lights of life.  Debasish Mridha
• Like a simple little lighthouse, my true ideal is to just be... having no trace of seeking, desiring, imitating, or striving, only light and peace.  Bodhi Smith
• To be a lighthouse, you must be strong enough to resist every kind of storm, to every kind of loneliness and you must have a powerful light inside you! Mehmet Murat Ildan

Friends are like lighthouses

• Friends are like Lighthouses, with the sources of light coming from their hearts. Tom Baker
• A true friend who leaves heartfelt messages can be a lighthouse to others, sharing light and truth.  Tom Baker

Love is like a lighthouse

• The love within them shone as brightly as the lighthouse beam on the darkest, stormiest night.  Jody Hedlund

Books and wisdom are like lighthouses

• Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of time. Edwin Percy Whipple
• A wise person is like a lighthouse. We are looking for their lights and follow them when we are in danger.  Debasish Mridha
• A good book is a lighthouse; a wise man is a lighthouse; conscience is a lighthouse; compassion is a lighthouse; science is a lighthouse! They all show us the true path! Keep them in your life to remain safe in the rocky and dark waters of life! Mehmet Murat Ildan

Original writers should be like lighthouses

• For me, a writer should be more like a lighthouse keeper, just out there by himself. He shouldn’t get his ideas from other people all around him.  Robert M. Pirsig

The antithesis of a lighthouse

• Scepticism is a barren coast, without a harbor or lighthouse. Henry Ward Beecher
• Metaphysics is a dark ocean without shores or lighthouse, strewn with many a philosophic wreck. Immanuel Kant

Thought provoking quotes about lighthouses

• The past is a lighthouse not a port.  Russian Proverb
• At the foot of the lighthouse it is dark.  Japanese proverb
• A fallen lighthouse is more dangerous than a reef. Navjot Singh Sidhu
• If you close your eyes, no lighthouse can help you!  Mehmet Murat ildan
• The lighthouse does great service to humanity yet it is the slave to those who trim the lamps.  Alice Wellington Rollins
• God built lighthouses to see people through storms. Then he built storms to remind people to find lighthouses.  Shannon L. Alder
• Lighthouses are endlessly suggestive signifiers of both human isolation and our ultimate connectedness to each other.  Virginia Woolf

Final thoughts

• She is like a revolving lighthouse; pitch darkness alternating with a dazzling brilliancy! Henry James
• The meagre lighthouse all in white, haunting the seaboard, as if it were the ghost of an edifice that had once had colour and rotundity, dripped melancholy tears after its late buffeting by the waves. Charles Dickens

Lighthouse poems

A lighthouse may seem old and cracked

But can save you when you fight against the gale

And so you look for a pair of bright eyes

When everything else seems to fail.

Morten Maehre

The lighthouse shines across the sea;

The homing fieldfares sing for glee:

‘Behold the shore!

Ada Cambridge

And as the evening darkens, lo! how bright,

Through the deep purple of the twilight air,

Beams forth the sudden radiance of its light

With strange, unearthly splendour in its glare!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The lighthouse lost its beam

And now all I see

Is the face of the cliffs between the moonlight waxing.

Garrett Michael Zablocki

Favourite photographers: Yann Arthus Bertrand

Yann Arthus-Bertrand has had a profound influence on the way I see both photography and the world itself. I still remember visiting his Earth from Above exhibition in London in 2001 and being completely blown away. Seeing the planet from the air revealed patterns, colours and landscapes that I had never imagined. It was one of those rare experiences that permanently changed the way I looked at the Earth.

What I especially love about Arthus-Bertrand's work is the idea that the world itself is a work of art. His photographs reveal a planet of astonishing beauty, where rivers, deserts, forests and mountains become abstract masterpieces when viewed from above. At the same time, his work carries a deeper message—that this beauty is precious and worth protecting. He reminds me that photography can do more than create beautiful images. It can awaken wonder, deepen our appreciation of the world, and encourage us to become better stewards of this extraordinary work of art that we call home.

People who inspire me: Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein has always been one of the people I most admire. Of course, he revolutionised our understanding of the universe, but what draws me to him is something deeper than his scientific achievements. I love his insatiable curiosity, his childlike sense of wonder, and his willingness to embrace mystery rather than pretend to have all the answers. He reminds me that the greatest minds are often the most humble in the face of the unknown.

As someone who loves collecting quotes, many of my favourites are Einstein's. They reveal a side of him that is often overlooked—a man who was not only a brilliant scientist, but also a deeply philosophical and spiritual thinker. He understood that imagination, awe and mystery are essential parts of the human experience, and that science and spirituality need not be in conflict. His life is a reminder that the pursuit of truth is at its best when it is guided not only by intellect, but also by curiosity, humility and a profound sense of wonder.

Favourite quotes

• Play is the highest form of research.
• Truth is what stands the test of experience.
• Any fool can know. The point is to understand.
• The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.
• Everything should be as simple as possible but no simpler.
• I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.
• The secret of creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
• I want to know all Gods thoughts; all the rest are just details.
• The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion.
• Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
• Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
• Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
• The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.
• It is not that I’m so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.
• Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.
• Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
• If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.
• I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.
• Two things are infinite, as far as we know – the universe and human stupidity.
• The process of scientific discovery is, in effect, a continual flight from wonder.
• We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.
• Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.
• A great thought begins by seeing something differently, with a shift of the mind’s eye.
• We never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.
• No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that created it. We need to see the world anew.
• The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.
• If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.
• There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
• Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.
• The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
• The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out can.
• A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
• Quotes on Wisdom Trove

People who inspire me: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt

Watching Ken Burns' documentary The Roosevelts gave me a completely new appreciation for Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. I came away deeply impressed not only by what they accomplished, but by the strength of character they displayed through extraordinary adversity. Franklin's determination after being paralysed by polio was remarkable. Rather than allowing it to define him, he developed an inner resilience that helped him lead the United States through both the Great Depression and the Second World War. His optimism, calmness and ability to inspire confidence during times of immense uncertainty made him one of the most consequential leaders of the twentieth century.

I was equally inspired by Eleanor Roosevelt. She was far more than a First Lady; she became one of the great advocates for human rights and social justice. Despite her own difficult upbringing and personal struggles, she dedicated her life to serving others and giving a voice to those who had been overlooked. What impressed me most about the Roosevelts was the way they complemented one another. Franklin provided visionary leadership at moments of national crisis, while Eleanor expanded the nation's moral vision through compassion and courage. Together they showed how resilience, purpose and service can leave a lasting impact on the world.

My favourite Eleanor Roosevelt quotes

• Do one thing every day that scares you.
• The purpose of life afterall is to live it.
• Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.
• Nothing we learn in this world is ever wasted.
• You must do the things you think you cannot do.
• Life has got to be lived – that’s all there is to it.
• It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
• No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
• To leave the world richer—that is the ultimate success.
• Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be.
• I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.
• If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.
• A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think.
• A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.
• People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.
• Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.
• Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
• The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.
• Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence.
• One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. When you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else.
• You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’
• Eleanor Roosevelt quotes on Wisdom Trove

Favourite photographers: Heni Cartier-Bresson

Another of the photographers I admire most is Henri Cartier-Bresson. What appeals to me isn't just the beauty of his photographs, but the way he observed the world. He had an extraordinary ability to recognise the significance of an ordinary moment and capture it at exactly the right instant. His idea of the "decisive moment" reminds me that the difference between an ordinary photograph and a remarkable one often comes down to patience, awareness and timing.

I also appreciate that Cartier-Bresson didn't try to control or stage his subjects. He trusted life to provide the moment rather than trying to create it himself. His photographs have a naturalness and authenticity that still feels fresh today. Looking at his work encourages me to slow down, pay closer attention, and remember that some of the most compelling images come from simply being present and noticing what others might miss.

Favourite artists: Salvadore Dali

One of the artists I find most fascinating is Salvador Dalí. At first glance his paintings seem bizarre, almost dreamlike, but the longer I look at them the more they invite reflection. They challenge my assumptions about reality, time and identity, and remind me that the world we experience is not always as fixed or straightforward as it appears. His work rewards curiosity, revealing new details and meanings each time I return to it.

What I admire most is Dalí's imagination and technical brilliance. However strange his visions were, he painted them with extraordinary precision, making the impossible feel almost believable. His art encourages me to think beyond the obvious and to appreciate the power of symbolism and metaphor. In many ways, his paintings feel less like images to be understood and more like invitations to explore the deeper landscape of the mind.

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Favourite quotes

• I don’t need drugs. I am drugs.
• God is just another artist, like me.
• To be interesting, one has to provoke.
• I’m going to live forever. Geniuses don’t die.
• Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.
• God invented man, and man invented the metric system.
• Take me, I am the drug; take me, I am hallucinogenic.
• Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.
• People love mystery, and that is why they love my paintings.
• There are some days when I think I’m going to die from an overdose of satisfaction.
• Every morning when I awake, the greatest of joys is mine: that of being Salvador Dali.

• Quotes on Wisdom Trove
• Life lessons

Favourite photographers: Amsel Adams

One of the photographers I admire most is Ansel Adams. His landscapes have an extraordinary sense of clarity, scale and stillness. He had a remarkable ability to reveal the beauty of the natural world, not by exaggerating it, but by helping us see what was already there. His photographs remind me that nature is full of grandeur, subtlety and order if we take the time to look carefully.

What I appreciate most about Adams is the combination of artistry and craftsmanship. He was a master of light, composition and tonal range, creating images that feel both technically perfect and deeply emotional. His work inspires me not only to become a better photographer, but also to spend more time in wild places, slowing down and paying closer attention. His photographs are a reminder that some of life's greatest experiences come simply from being present in nature.

Favourite artists: Leonardo da Vinci

What fascinates me about Leonardo da Vinci is not just that he was a brilliant artist, but that he seemed endlessly curious about almost everything. Painting, anatomy, engineering, architecture, geology, flight - he approached each subject with the same desire to understand how the world really works. He reminds me that creativity and curiosity are inseparable, and that the most rewarding discoveries often happen at the intersection of different fields.

I also admire Leonardo's ability to combine scientific observation with artistic vision. He looked at nature with extraordinary care, believing that the closer we observe reality, the deeper our understanding becomes. His notebooks reveal someone who never stopped asking questions or seeking better ways of seeing. His life encourages me to remain curious, to keep learning, and to remember that the pursuit of understanding can be just as important as the answers themselves.

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Favourite quotes

• Art is never finished, only abandoned.
• Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
• The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.
• Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge.
• All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.
• A beautiful body perishes, but a work of art dies not.
• Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active.
• Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness.
• Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.
• My intention is to consult experience first, and then with reasoning show why such experience is bound to operate in such a way.
• Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity.
• Quotes on Wisdom Trove
• Life lessons

Favourite artists: Michelangelo

Another of the artists I admire most is Michelangelo. His work combines an extraordinary level of technical mastery with a profound understanding of the human form. Whether in sculpture, painting or architecture, he had an unmatched ability to express strength, beauty and emotion. I still remember visiting Rome in 1996 and standing beneath the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel for the first time. I was completely blown away. No photograph had prepared me for the scale, complexity and sheer brilliance of what he created.

What I find especially inspiring is the way Michelangelo seemed to see potential where others saw only raw stone. His famous idea that the sculpture already existed within the marble, and that his task was simply to reveal it, has always resonated with me. It feels like a powerful metaphor for life itself—that beneath the surface there is something waiting to be uncovered through patience, effort and vision. His work reminds me that great art is not only about skill, but about revealing something deeper that was there all along.

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Favourite quotes

• Beauty is the purgation of superfluities.
• My soul can find no staircase to Heaven unless it be through Earth’s loveliness.
• The great tragedy of life is not that people set their sights too high and fail to achieve their goals but that they set their sights too low and do.
• If people knew how hard I worked at my art, they would not consider me a genius.
• If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.
• Perfection is no small thing, but it is made up of small things.
• The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.
• No great work of art is ever finished.
• Art is a jealous thing; it requires the whole and entire man.
• I am still learning. (at age 87)
• Only God creates. The rest of us just copy.
• Art lives on constraint and dies of freedom. 
• Quotes on Wisdom Trove
• Life lessons

Favourite artists: Monet

Claude Monet changed the way I look at the natural world. Rather than trying to paint every detail, he captured something more elusive—the quality of light, atmosphere and the feeling of a particular moment. His paintings remind me that what makes a scene beautiful is often not the objects themselves, but the way light transforms them. Looking at his work encourages me to slow down and notice those fleeting moments that are so easily overlooked.

What I especially appreciate is Monet's ability to find endless inspiration in familiar places. He returned to the same subjects again and again—the haystacks, the water lilies, Rouen Cathedral—not because they were unchanged, but because the light was never the same twice. That way of seeing has had a real influence on my photography. It reminds me that I don't need to travel to extraordinary places to create meaningful images. There is endless inspiration in the familiar if I return often enough, pay close attention, and learn to see each scene with fresh eyes.

  

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Favourite quotes

• I want to paint the way a bird sings.
• My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.
• It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly.
• Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.
• For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life – the light and the air which vary continually.
• I am following Nature without being able to grasp her, I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.
• It is extraordinary to see the sea; what a spectacle! She is so unfettered that one wonders whether it is possible that she again become calm.
• It seems to me, when I see nature, that I see it ready made, completely written.
• My wish is to stay always like this, living quietly in a corner of nature.
• I am following Nature without being able to grasp her, I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.
• Quotes on Wisdom Trove
• Life lessons

Favourite artists: Picasso

Pablo Picasso fascinates me because he refused to see the world in conventional ways. He was never content simply to reproduce what the eye could already see. Instead, he explored different perspectives, broke familiar forms apart, and rebuilt them into something entirely new. His work reminds me that creativity often begins by questioning assumptions rather than accepting them.

What I admire most is Picasso's willingness to keep evolving throughout his life. He constantly experimented, took risks, and reinvented his style instead of repeating what had already made him successful. That commitment to exploration is deeply inspiring. It encourages me to stay curious, to keep learning, and to remember that growth often comes from having the courage to look at familiar things from a completely different perspective.

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Favourite quotes

• Art is a leap into the dark.
• We don’t grow older we grow riper.
• Everything you can imagine is real.
• It takes a long time to become young.
• Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.
• Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.
• Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.
• Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working.
• I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.
• Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.
• Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.
• We are all born children- the trick is remaining one.
• Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
• It is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction.
• I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else.
• Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
• If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes.
• What I want is that my picture should evoke nothing but emotion.
• Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.
• What I capture in spite of myself interests me more than my own ideas.
• The important thing is to create. Nothing else matters; creation is all.
• A plagiarist steals from one person. A true artist steals from everybody.
• We now know that Art is not the truth… but rather a way of approaching the truth.
• Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
• The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.
• It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.
• If there were only one truth, you couldn’t paint a hundred canvases on the same theme.
• If I paint a wild horse, you might not see the horse… but surely you will see the wildness!
• The first half of life is learning to be an adult-the second half is learning to be a child.
• He can who thinks he can, and he can’t who thinks he can’t. This is an inexorable, indisputable law.
• There is only one way to see things, until someone shows us how to look at them with different eyes.
• One never knows what one is going to do. One starts a painting and then it becomes something quite different.
• I don’t know in advance what I am going to put on canvas any more than I decide beforehand what colours I am going to use.
• My mother said to me, ‘If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.’ Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.
• Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.
• Paintings are but research and experiment. I never do a painting as a work of art. All of them are researches. I search constantly and there is a logical sequence in all this research.
• To finish a work? To finish a picture? What nonsense! To finish it means to be through with it, to kill it, to rid it of its soul, to give it its final blow the coup de grace for the painter as well as for the picture.

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Favourite artists: Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's paintings always leave me with a sense of warmth and joy. He had an extraordinary ability to capture the beauty of everyday life—friends talking, families gathering, children playing, people enjoying a meal or an afternoon outdoors. His work reminds me that life's most meaningful moments are often the simplest ones, and that ordinary human experiences can be deeply beautiful.

What I appreciate most is the sense of light and humanity that runs through his paintings. His subjects feel alive, relaxed and connected, never posed or distant. Looking at his work encourages me to notice those same moments in my own life and photography—the shared smile, the quiet conversation, the warmth of sunlight on people simply enjoying being together. Renoir reminds me that beauty is not only found in dramatic landscapes or extraordinary events, but also in the richness of everyday human life.

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Favourite quotes

• It’s with my brush that I make love.
• Religion is everywhere. It is in the mind, in the heart, in the love you put into what you do.
• The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, carry you away. 
• I arrange my subject as I want it, then I go ahead and paint it, like a child.
• One must from time to time attempt things that are beyond one’s capacity.
• You come to nature with all her theories, and she knocks them all flat.
• Go and see what others have produced, but never copy anything except nature. To be an artist you must learn the laws of nature.
• The pain passes, but the beauty remains.
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Favourite artists: Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse reminds me that creativity is ultimately about vision, not technique. His work is full of colour, simplicity and joy, yet behind that apparent simplicity is a remarkable ability to communicate emotion with the fewest possible elements. He had a gift for stripping away the unnecessary and revealing the essence of a subject, showing that great art doesn't always need complexity to have a profound impact.

One of the things I find most inspiring about Matisse is what he did later in life. When illness meant he could no longer paint in the traditional way, he refused to stop creating. Instead, he began making his famous cut-outs, using painted sheets of coloured paper that he cut into bold, expressive shapes. Rather than seeing his physical limitations as the end of his artistic life, he turned them into the beginning of a completely new chapter. His example reminds me that creativity is ultimately a state of mind, and that obstacles can become opportunities if we are willing to adapt and keep creating.

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Favourite artists: Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo's art speaks to me because it is so deeply personal and honest. She painted from her own life, transforming physical pain, emotional struggle and questions of identity into works of extraordinary power. Her paintings remind me that great art doesn't have to avoid suffering. Sometimes it is through our deepest challenges that we discover the most authentic forms of expression.

What I admire most about Kahlo is her courage. Despite living with chronic pain for much of her life, she continued to create work that was uncompromisingly original and unmistakably her own. She never tried to fit into someone else's idea of what an artist should be. Her life reminds me that creativity is not about having perfect circumstances, but about expressing truth as honestly as we can. There is something deeply inspiring about her determination to turn adversity into beauty and meaning.

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Favourite artists: Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh's paintings have always had a special place in my heart. There is an intensity and emotional honesty in his work that is unlike anyone else's. His use of colour, texture and movement gives his paintings a remarkable sense of life, making landscapes, skies and everyday scenes feel almost alive. I vividly remember visiting the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 1997 after having a joint. Standing in front of his original paintings, I was completely blown away. Seeing the thickness of the paint and the energy of every brushstroke was an experience I'll never forget.

What I admire most about Van Gogh is his ability to find beauty and meaning in ordinary subjects. Whether he was painting a field of wheat, a chair, a pair of old boots or a night sky, he brought an extraordinary depth of feeling to his work. His paintings remind me that art is not simply about recording what we see, but about revealing how we experience the world. They continue to inspire me to look more carefully, feel more deeply, and appreciate the beauty that surrounds us every day.

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Favourite quotes

• What is done in love is done well.
• We are surrounded by poetry on all sides.
• I would rather die of passion than of boredom.
• Art is to console those who are broken by life.
• The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting.
• One must work and dare if one really wants to live.
• If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.
• Admire as much as you can. Most people do not admire enough.
• What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?
• Success is sometimes the outcome of a whole string of failures.
• I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.
• I work as diligently on my canvases as the laborers do in their fields.
• I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process.
• To suffer without complaint is the only lesson we have to learn in this life.
• I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.
• Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more.
• …and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?
• It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.
• Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.
• Seek only light and freedom and do not immerse yourself too deeply in the worldly mire.
• I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say ‘he feels deeply, he feels tenderly’.
• The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right.
• If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.
• To do good work one must eat well, be well housed, have one’s fling from time to time, smoke one’s pipe, and drink one’s coffee in peace.
• In spite of everything, I shall rise again; I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.
• If you work with love and intelligence, you develop a kind of armour against people’s opinions, just because of the sincerity of your love for nature and art.
• It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.
• It must be good to die in the knowledge that one has done some truthful work…and to know that, as a result, one will live on in the memory of at least a few and leave a good example for those who come after.
• If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle.

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Memorable moments: The pot plant contingency

When I was in my early twenties, I went to see the doctor. I can't recall the exact reason for the visit, but at one point, he decided he needed a urine sample.

"Oh dear," I said, wincing. "I actually just went to the loo right before I came in."

"Not to worry," he replied smoothly. "I only need a tiny drop."

He handed me a small plastic container, gestured to the room, and stepped outside to give me some privacy.

I positioned the bottle and began, pleasantly surprised and relieved that my body was cooperating enough to squeeze out a modest sample. But then, to my great surprise, the flow didn't taper off. In fact, it gathered momentum.

I watched in mounting panic as the fluid reached a quarter full... then half full... then three-quarters full—and I was still going at full throttle.

Oh no, I thought, a wave of sheer desperation hitting me. The bottle isn't big enough! What on earth am I going to do?!

Panic-driven calculations raced through my mind. Stepping out into the packed waiting room mid-stream was obviously out of the question. I scanned the small consultation room with wide, manic eyes. My gaze darted to a potted plant in the corner—could I get away with watering the Ficus? Then I looked at the window—could I somehow crack it open and aim for the flowerbed outside without the passersby noticing?

Just as I was on the absolute brink of making a terrible, life-altering decision, the tide miraculously turned. The flow sputtered and stopped, leaving the urine exactly one inch from the absolute brim.

A moment later, the doctor walked back in. He took one look at the sloshing, overflowing vessel handed to him by the young man who five minutes earlier insisted his tank was completely empty, and stood there in silent, utter astonishment.

Favourite directors: Christopher Nolan

I’ve just come home from seeing The Odyssey, and once again I was reminded why Christopher Nolan is my favourite filmmaker working today. Every time I walk out of one of his films, I feel like I've experienced something rather than simply watched it. His movies linger. They invite reflection. They make me want to see them again—not just to catch what I missed, but because they continue unfolding long after the credits roll.

Part of his genius lies in the remarkable creative team he has built around him. He has worked alongside his wife and producer, Emma Thomas, since the very beginning, and his brother Jonathan has been instrumental in shaping many of his greatest stories. More recently, editor Jennifer Lame has brought extraordinary rhythm and emotional precision to his films. It's a reminder that while Nolan is a visionary, great art is often born from enduring creative partnerships.

Then there are the stories themselves. Nobody constructs a narrative quite like Nolan. The Prestige remains, in my view, one of the greatest screenplays ever written, with not one but two breathtaking twists that completely transform everything that came before. Memento turned storytelling inside out, allowing us to experience memory loss rather than simply observe it. Interstellar somehow combines hard science, breathtaking spectacle and one of the most moving father-daughter stories ever put on screen. And the ending of Inception—that spinning top—may be the perfect ending because it leaves us wrestling with a deeper question than whether Cobb is dreaming: what is reality, and does our experience of it ultimately matter more than certainty?

But what elevates Nolan above almost every other blockbuster director is that he's never really making films about explosions, spies, superheroes or space travel. Those are simply the vehicles. Beneath them lie profound existential questions. What is time? What is identity? How much of who we are is memory? Can love transcend space and time? What is sacrifice? How should we live when faced with uncertainty? He trusts his audience to engage with these questions rather than reducing them to simple answers.

Perhaps that's why his films resonate with me so deeply. They embody what I believe great art should do. Great art doesn't merely entertain—it expands consciousness. It stretches the imagination, deepens our perception, and leaves us seeing ourselves and reality a little differently than before.

After The Odyssey, I'm more convinced than ever that Christopher Nolan isn't just one of the great filmmakers of our time. He's one of the great storytellers. And in a culture that often underestimates the power of story, that's a rare and precious gift.