Volume 13 No. 1 Oct/Nov 2008 THE COVER Designer barnhouse. Photograph: Tony Sheffield

 

 

 

 

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Contents

PAINTER WITHOUT A BRUSH
Artist Richard Allen doesn’t use brushes. “I just carve into the paint,” he says. “The only time I use paintbrushes is to sign my name.” That’s because Richard sculpts with a spatula into thick gesso (white-based paint on the canvas) before the paint is squeezed on from tubes. The effect is quite remarkable. So too are the prices he achieves: From $10,000 to $40,000 a piece. Writer Deborah McIntosh watched Richard at work in an idyllic setting in his barn-like studio outside Berrima.

FROM BOARDROOM TO BROADCASTING STUDIO
It’s a giant leap from the lofty boardrooms of Sydney’s CBD to the shoestring studio of a community radio station in the Southern Highlands, but it’s one that Frank Conroy, a former head of Westpac and a director on many company boards, has made with passion and flair. Every Tuesday he presents a smoothly professional two hour current affairs, talk and music programme on Highland FM (107.1). Peter Meredith sat in.

GOD BLESS THIS BARN
First, take one barn-style home in a lovely rural setting. Then multiply the size by three. Add a determination to use as much recycled material from the barn before renovation as possible and the result is a magnificent makeover. Originally intended as a weekender, the owners’ love of the area caused them to decide to live in the house permanently, and so the building began. Now, after an almost 18 months trouble-free run on the project, the barn is one very large family home.

ALL DAYS ARE DIAMONDS
Celebrity jeweller Nic Cerrone grew up in poverty in Italy before his family moved to Australia seeking a better life. They found it, and so did Nic. Twenty years ago Nic attended a De Beers Diamonds conference in Bowral but took the long way home to Sydney, driving though the rural roads around Kangaloon. He couldn’t believe how similar the landscape was to where he was brought up in Italy. Soon after, he bought a property at Kangaloon and over the years built his Highlands escape, raising cattle and organic vegetables and coming down for two or three days a week.

THE BEAUTIFUL BERRIMA OAK
Our relatively new series “In praise of ancient trees” has been widely welcomed by readers. There is something majestic, determined and a little vulnerable about huge old trees. This issue we visit the Berrima oak planted on April 21, 1890, by Sir Henry Parkes, “the Father of Federation”.

WINGS OF AN ANGEL
Bowral businessman Tony Wheeler has a light aircraft he uses to help needy people reach medical facilities. It’s the Wheeler family’s way of giving something back to the community. Our writer Peter Meredith went on a run from Mittagong to Albury to pick up a child patient and his parents and take them to hospital in Melbourne. He hadn’t counted on ice on the wings and his nervousness is obvious in his story. But Tony Wheeler got him safely back home, as he always does.

FESTIVE FAVOURITES
Puddings and cakes are Christmas favourites and are usually made well in advance. That’s why this issue we have three pudding recipes and three cake recipes, two of them with men as the cook. So there’s no excuse: Get cooking.

HOLY SMOKE! IT'S SALMON
Food Writer Vanessa Jones had a Canadian sous chef working for her at Parliament House in Sydney and he gave her an amazing recipe for plank salmon. That is, a whole salmon placed on soaked cedar plank then cooked in a covered barbecue. That’s a lot of salmon, so Vanessa has provided delicious recipes for the leftovers.