Take a moment out of your day to watch this great National Geographic campaign - even if it’s just to enjoy the footage.

Rapidly emptying Wivenhoe Dam in the distance. Photo taken from Mt. Glorious Lookout, 13th August 2007.

Anyone currently living in Australia can sympathize when I say, ‘All I want to do is have a nice long hot bath.’ With current Level 5 water restrictions limiting Brisbane citizens to four minute showers a day and a target of 140L of water each per day, having a bath is an unattainable luxury. According to the Brisbane City Council website, showering instead of having a bath saves 87L, and I’m afraid I couldn’t live with the guilt of knowing I was wasting 87L of water. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the last few weeks I’ve been trying to collect some good quality images of Victorian-period paintings of Tudor scenes - for example, a 19th century interpretation of a scene from Shakespeare, or a negative portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I. I need these images to show at my thesis presentation in two weeks time, so it’s a necessity that they are large and water-mark free. Aside from the fact that there are very few images online of paintings by the more obscure 19th century historical artists, I’ve run into all sorts of problems with Art-poster websites (’select your size, frame and paper and we’ll print it for you for $39.95!!’).

After a good few hours of searching I eventually began relying almost soley on two sites in particular, Art Renewal International (which has high resolution images of the majority of artists’ major works as well as biographical information) and the Tate Collection (not as thorough as Art Renewal as it only deals with paintings in the Tate gallery, but still worth taking a look!).

Below is one of the best results from my search, ‘The Execution of Lady Jane Grey’ by Paul Delaroche. Although historically inaccurate (Jane was executed outside and had a large audience of Catholic clergy and members from the court) - it is incredibly evocative and is a good example of the nineteenth century worship of the feminine form.

‘The Execution of Lady Jane Grey’ by Paul Delaroche (1834) - Image courtesy Art Renewal International