38 Years between drinks

[Rob Kennedy]

For your view pleasure or displeasure.

"38 Years Between Drinks". Oil on fine cotton duck. 61 x 43 cm.

This painting was inspired by several rather remarkable events. The Golden Ox Restaurant in Redcliffe (Queensland Australia) was where I got my first job as a wine waiter way back in 1978. The owner gave me a reference which assisted me in getting a job as a flight steward with Qantas. After an absence of 38 years my mum told me that she had organised a get together lunch at the Golden Ox. Unbelievably when I walked in after 38 years, not only was the restaurant still going strong, Nick and Virginia Tzimas still owned and worked in the restaurant. This feat must surely put the Golden Ox and the Tzimas family among a unique group of restaurateurs.

To celebrate this incredible milestone I painted "38 Years Between Drinks". I took the original logo on one wine glass and the newer logo on the other. One empty glass and one full to signify the coming together of a long, long relationship.