Travel | The Studio

Posts Tagged ‘Travel’

Little Dancer by Degas

Posted in Little Known Facts, Travel, Trivia, tagged Ballet, Degas, Edgar Degas, Little Dancer, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Met, Travel on May 5, 2013| 1 Comment »

Little Dancer – Edgar Degas

Over the years I have posted many times about Edgar Degas and his dancers. The Little Fourteen Year Old Dancer that he sculpted in 1880 is just beautiful. Degas exhibited the original version of this sculpture at the 6th Impressionist exhibit in 1881. The wax original was tinted to simulate flesh, clothed in a fabric bodice, tutu, and ballet slippers and topped with a horsehair wig tied behind with a silk ribbon. Can you imagine seeing that???!!! Did you know that this sculpture was not cast in bronze until after Degas died. His family had it done and 69 sculptures survived the bronzing process. (You can read and see more about it here and at the link at the end of this post.)

Degas Dancer from the back

The wonderful thing about seeing the sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art recently is that they have it displayed right in the middle of a gallery where you can walk all the way around it. Wonderful! And there are many Degas Dancer paintings hanging in the gallery with it. A dancer would be in heaven!

There is much known and written about Degas and his dancers. Check it out here.

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Largest Art Heist in History

Posted in Little Known Facts, Travel, Trivia, tagged Boston, Boston Art Theft, Isabella Gardner Museum, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Largest Art Theft, Largest Art Theft in History, Travel on March 18, 2013| 2 Comments »

Twenty-three years ago, early on the morning of March 18, 1990, two thieves dressed as police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum while everyone outside was preparing for the St. Patrick’s Day parade and committed the largest art robbery in history. Thirteen pieces were stolen including a Rembrandt, a Vermeer, five Degas drawings, a Manet and more. The estimated value is over $500 million! Read more about the art here.

And the theft is still a mystery. The art has not been recovered and there are really no leads bringing the FBI closer to recovering the art. When I was in Boston a few years ago I visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and saw her unusual collection. (Read about that visit here.) But the really weird part was to walk by a wonderful painting and then see an empty frame right next to it (see above) where the thieves cut the art right out of their frame. The Board of Directors chose to leave the frames exactly as they were since Gardner had left explicit directions that the art remain as she left it.

Isabella Stewart Gardner by John Singer Sargent

The museum is fascinating in that is a home that houses a wonderful collection. Asked in 1917 about building a museum and Gardner said,

“Years ago I decided that the greatest need in our Country was Art… We were a very young country and had very few opportunities of seeing beautiful things, works of art… So, I determined to make it my life’s work if I could.”

She was a fascinating woman. I hope you spend a little time reading more about her and her museum.

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Happy Birthday Winslow Homer

Posted in Little Known Facts, Trivia, tagged Boys in a Pasture, Breeezing it Up, Travel, Winslow Homer on February 24, 2013| 2 Comments »

Winslow Homer’s “Breezing Up”, 1876, National Gallery of Art

Born on February 24, 1836 in Boston, Massachusetts, Winslow Homer was an American landscape painter best known for his marine paintings. His mother was an amateur watercolor painter and was his first teacher. He was an average student but always showed an aptitude for art and upon graduating from high school his father helped him get a job with a lithographer as an apprentice. He spent twenty years doing illustrations for Harper’s Weekly and other local publications before opening a studio.

One of his most well know paintings, Breezing Up, depicts a father and three boys out for a sail. In 1962 it was released as a commemorative stamp honoring Homer.

Boys in a Pasture, 1874, Winslow Homer, Boston Museum of Fine Art

In 2010, the Post Office issued another stamp as part of their American Treasure series. It was the Boys in a Pasture from 1874. I was lucky enough to have seen it in Boston last year at the MFA. Considered one of the finest American painters of the 19th Century he died in September 1910 at the age of 74. Today we wish Winslow Homer a happy birthday and remember his art with admiration.

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Monet in St. Pete

Posted in Little Known Facts, Travel, Trivia, tagged impressionism, Landscape, MFA St. Petersburg, Monet, Museum of Fine Art St Petersburg, oil painting, St Petersburg, Travel on February 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Monet’s “Road to the Village of Vetheuil, Snow”

Monet’s “Springtime in Giverny”

One of the best things about going to Florida to visit my friend, Linda, was that she loves art. So we visited many art venues while I was there. And I loved every minute. Right before boarding the airplane to come home yesterday we stopped in at the Museum of Fine Art in St. Petersburg and what a lovely museum they have! There was a nice Monet grouping there. The winter and spring paintings were hung side by side so you got a nice idea of the versatility of his work and how he viewed seasons and color. But the most interesting was the “House of Parliament”, Effects of Fog, oil on canvas, painted in 1904. Monet did 19 canvas of the same size of the Parliament scene. He did them depicting different seasons and times of day. (Click here to see more info on series paintings by Monet.) He started in 1900 painting the scene of Parliament from his hospital room. He painted most of the 19 canvases though in his studio at Giverny changing the colors and tones of canvas to explore different times of day and seasons. This is one way that artists improve is by exploring light and color. Monet was the master!

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Hilton Head Marsh

Posted in Plein Air, Travel, tagged daily painter, Hilton Head Island, Hilton Head Marsh, impressionism, Landscape, oil painting, Travel, Virginia Artist on November 19, 2012| 1 Comment »

This is a painting that I did a few years ago while at Hilton Head. I’m looking forward to being there again this week and having some time to go out and paint!

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Packed to Paint!

Posted in daily painter, Travel, tagged Travel, Virginia Artist on June 14, 2012| Leave a Comment »

As you can see, it takes quite a bit of “stuff” to take a painting job on the road. I’m packed to paint. Now just to get there. Stay tuned to watch the process of painting a few murals over the next few days.

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Meeting New Friends

Posted in Art Class, Small Town Life, Travel, tagged acrylic, Art Class, art lessons, impressionism, oil painting, Travel, Virginia Artist on April 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »

One of the things I like best about working at the shop is that I meet really interesting people who are visiting our town. Last weekend I met these nice folks who were in town for the week for Spring Break. They were staying out at the State Park and doing fun things each day. I invited them to come paint with us if they had time.

Annabelle joined the extra-large class that we had on Wednesday. See more here. They did a great job painting and had fun too. So nice to meet you Lori and Annabelle.

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View at Sylva NC

Posted in daily painter, Travel, tagged acrylic, daily painter, daily painting, impressionism, Landscape, NC, Sylva, Travel, Virginia Artist on September 8, 2011| 1 Comment »

A month or so ago I went down to Sylva, NC to visit with an aunt and cousin that I hadn’t seen in about 25 years. It was great seeing them. And it was good to see the differences in their mountains and ours. Here are two quick 5×7 paintings that I did when I got home. And stay tuned, the big annual sale starts soon.

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My Adventure at Stringtown Rising Farm

Posted in Farm Animals, tagged acrylic, daily painter, farm animals, Travel on August 31, 2011| 1 Comment »

Now that I am home I want to tell you more about my adventure at Stringtown Rising Farm in West Virginia. The farm is the home to Suzanne McMinn of Chickens in the Road. For years I have followed her blog and loved her writings and photos of her life on her farm.

I even contacted her a couple of years ago about permission to use her photos of her animals as the reference material for a Farm Animal series I painted. And she graciously said yes.

When Suzanne reached out for someone to come and paint a wall for her in her newly redesigned basement I jumped at the chance to see the farm for myself.

Upon arrival Saturday afternoon we were greeted by the welcoming committee.

My friend, Linda K., went with me. She’s a great painter and was a huge help to me in completing this project in a short time. The welcoming committee loved her.

And she loved them. Especially Glory Bee, the giant calf!

We had to get oriented so the first thing we did was to take tons of photos of the animals to use for reference.

Besides the goats and cows, there are sheep. This is Crazy and Baby Crazy.

And of course, there are lots of chickens running around. And some are even penned up. These I think are named “Future Lunch and Dinner”!

And there is Goose who is sentenced to the chicken pen because his siblings disappeared while roaming free so he is safer here.

But if I had to choose my favorite (besides the dogs, of course) it would have to be the two baby goats, Peanut and Coal. Luckily, they are sold already or I may have had to have one of them. They were just adorable.

There are many more photos of animals…I took about three hundred in two days, and I will share more in the coming days and I’m sure I will paint many of them. After gathering material we took a look at the space and started talking about what we should paint. Over the next couple of posts I will chronicle our process. Please stay tuned.

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A Visit to “Chickens in the Road”

Posted in Small Town Life, Travel, tagged baby goats, goats, Stringtown Rising Farm, Suzanne McMinn, Travel, West Virginia Farm on August 28, 2011| 5 Comments »

Several years ago I heard a story on NPR about a lady who lived on a little farm in West Virginia and blogged about her life there. At the time I was at my cabin out in the middle of nowhere with no computer service but as soon as I got back to town I checked it out online and have been following the adventures of Suzanne McMinn and www.chickensintheroad.com ever since.

Almost every day since I heard of her I have allowed her to begin my day with a cute story about her animals, her cheesemaking or some adventure she had gotten herself into. I love it.

Never did I think that I would actually end up visiting Stringtown Rising Farm and see the organized chaos for myself. But here I am, taking my own photos of Mr. Hyde. And isn’t he a handsome fellow?

But the biggest problem so far is that I fallen in love with the two baby goats. Have you ever seen anything so cute??? They are sold already or I am afraid that I would have had to have taken one home with me. I’m not sure what Lincoln and Jed would have thought about it but I’m sure we could have figured something out.

The first thing we did when we got here was to make mozzarella cheese! I love cheese and she is teaching me to make it. We put our fresh mozzarella on the pizza Suzanne made for us with fresh made crust, herbs and tomatoes right out of the garden. It was terrific!

And I even think the animals were thrilled that she made fresh pizza because as Suzanne picked the tomatoes for our dinner, she tossed a few over the fence for them!