Q. We know it as the home of Da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’, but what other notable artworks can be found at The Louvre? . A. Not surprisingly, The Louvre is home to some of the most remarkable paintings in the world. Eugene Delacroix’s ‘Liberty Leading The People. ‘Raphael’s ‘La Belle

Q. Even those of us whose actorly aspirations ended in middle school can remember the stomach-seizing stress of the audition. Nightmares about forgetting you even had an audition, then  being thrust on stage in a spotlit theatre stuffed with professional theatre critics. Finally, the real day comes, they call out

Q. Your fictional hosts are serving you pudding. Should you eat it? . A. Many a literary table has been bedecked with showstopper pudding. ‘Pudding,’ the Oxford Dictionary tells us, is ‘a cooked sweet dish served after the main course of a meal.’ Get ready for ‘a good helping of

Q. Happy Thanksgiving from Canada! What are some examples of Thanksgiving-relevant art from renowned artists? . A. Here are some paintings that are either overtly focused on Thanksgiving or seem to evoke its spirit.   March Avery. Thanksgiving. 1967 . Andries van Bochoven. Portrait of the artist and his family.

Q. What have been some of the most controversial royal portraits over the years? A. This whole business of painting portraits – let alone royal portraits – is not for the faint-hearted. What if your all-powerful subject hates what you create? What if the royal trusts you, likes the portrait,

Q. Those of us who can’t art for beans are most strategic when forced invited to draw or paint. ‘Hmm. What will it be this time? A swirly ‘abstract’ or a circle flower with five petals?’ But what of those gifted visual artists who can create all manner of delights? How

Q. Speaking of broad music polls, how did movie music scores stack up in 2023? . A. In August of 2023, Classic FM reported out on their poll of 10,000 listeners around their favourite movie scores. Coming in at #1? Let’s just say: ‘Please, Mr. Gandalf, sir, don’t hurt me.

Q. Why did the remarkable Kandinsky so favour circles? . A. Well, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy (1866-1944) was also a prolific writer, so he serves up his own answers. In a 1930 letter to art critic and historian Will Grohmann, Kandinsky wrote: ‘Why does the circle fascinate me? It is (1)

Q. They are the most intriguing birds, with their Formula 1 wings, Mr Fantastic tongues, and iridescent protein feathers.  Who are some artists who have worked to capture hummingbird beauty on canvas? . A. American painter and naturalist Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904) was one. Heade was utterly taken with these tinkerbirds,

Q. The streets around Times Square are jammed with people filing in and out of theatres. Some are finally seeing shows they’ve dreamed of for years. Others are back again to check out the new cast in their long-held favourites – like ‘The Lion King’, which opened in 1997, or