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Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Blandy Experimental Farm for Mother’s Day

Posted in Holidays, Serendipity, Small Town Life, Travel on May 15, 2017| Leave a Comment »

My friend Deborah and I took her mom out to the Garden Show at Blandy Experimental Farm yesterday for the Garden Show after a little brunch. It was a fun time. So many beautiful plants were available. But there was also other garden related items …. and animals. We saw these great guys…not sure if they are llamas or alpacas……but they were CUTE! And while I didn’t buy a basket I did get a hat…and it’s cute too. I didn’t ask how much the baby was that was on display with the baskets because I really didn’t need one. LOL!

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NC Farmland

Posted in daily painter, Travel, tagged boiled peanuts, strawberries, tobacco, tobacco barn, tobacco planter on May 3, 2017| 2 Comments »

On the last day of a short vacation we drove home through the farmland of North Carolina where we saw many beautiful things to paint including an old Tobacco Barn, a Tobacco Planter, a Strawberry Patch and much more. And of course, we ate Boiled Peanuts! It was a fun trip home.

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Here Comes the Sun

Posted in daily painter, Travel on May 1, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Taking a short break from work…gathering reference photos. This one we will paint soon!

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More Monets…

Posted in Flowers, Landscape, Serendipity, Travel on April 5, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Nothing is better than discovering a Monet that I haven’t seen before. This “Flowers in a Vase” by Monet is one I can’t remember seeing before. It’s beautiful in it’s simplicity. The Sunset painting was lovely too….from a little earlier period that really shows his impressionistic style.

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A Monet Comparison at PMA

Posted in Little Known Facts, Serendipity, Travel on April 4, 2017| Leave a Comment »

While at the Philadelphia Museum of Art we got to see some beautiful impressionism. Of course, Monet, one of our all time favorites and one of the founders of the impressionist movement was on prominent display. Everyone recognizes the Japanese Footbridge. He painted it many times. PMA has two interesting ones. The first he painted in 1899…he painted it 12 times that year. Some twenty years later he had begun to have trouble with his eyesight and complained of not seeing colors well. You see the difference by comparing these two versions of his Japanese Footbridge. It was very telling to see them in the same museum.

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Variety at PMA

Posted in Serendipity, Travel on April 3, 2017| Leave a Comment »

In Philadelphia for a quick art trip with some friends from home as well as a cousin from Georgia. We jumped right in by driving directly to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see as much as we could before it closed at 5. We got in quite a bit….and quite a variety from the fabulous watercolor exhibit to a huge Chagall.

I’ll be sharing more over the next few days. Today we will go to the Barnes Foundation. It is my favorite so I can’t wait!

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80 Years Ago Today!

Posted in Little Known Facts, Serendipity, Travel, tagged Andrew Mellon, National Gallery, National Gallery of Art on March 24, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Eighty years ago today Congress passed an act to accept a gift of an art collection and building funds to create a National Art Museum on the National Mall. Andrew Mellon, a Pittsburgh banker and Secretary of the Treasury (from 1921-32) had the idea and worked on a plan to create the new gallery and it was his donation in 1937 of his substantial art collection valued at $40 million plus an additional $10 million ($10 million in 1937 equals $172 million in 2017) for construction that was used to establish the National Gallery of Art. Congress accepted his offer and passed the act to establish the museum on March 24, 1937, Mellon’s birthday.

The_Concert_A22894 The National Gallery of Art brings wonderful works of art to the public (for free admission) that would not ordinarily be on view. An example is the recent purchase of Gerard van Honthorst’s monumental masterwork, The Concert, that was acquired by the National Gallery in 2013 and went on display for the first time in 218 years.