Final stop: Washington DC

Henri Matisse, Open Window, Collioure, 1905

Richard Diebenkorn, Interior with View of Ocean

Note: this post is a month behind, but wraps up my east coast trip. The photos above are referenced in my last paragraphs on the Duncan Philips visit.

Had a marvelous visit with high school friend and her husband--and some of their friends--in Washington DC. Such gracious hospitality! After the initial challenge of circumventing the Pope in order to get to their house, all was easy and enjoyable, and the perfect September weather continued.

My first museum was the National Gallery of Art for an extensive exhibition of the work of Gustave Caillebotte.
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/exhibitions/2015/gustave-caillebotte.html
In the first couple of rooms, his worked seemed like that of a photo journalist: just the facts, m'am. Beautiful depictions of people out admiring their newly-constructed Hausmann re-do of Paris. No emotional content, or nuance of feeling or personal relationship are apparent in those works. His extreme perspectives make for interesting compositions.

But after he bought his own suburban retreat on the Seine, in Petit Gennevilliers, his work shifted to a more personal elaboration on his surroundings. The paintings of boaters are a real treat to view, capturing the light, the water, and the seasonality of each locale. While viewing these, I so very much wished that photos were allowed--but alas. One of my favorites was "Boating on the Yerres"

Gustave Caillebotte, Boating on the Yerres, 1877

...(above photo from web search), which is quite large like many in the exhibit.

I should not leave as a postscript the fact that this gallery has several of Vermeer's finest paintings, including reading the letter, the red hat and the flute player (look up exact titles later).

After a stroll through the sculpture garden, and a superb lunch of people-watching in the Pavilion Café, it was on to the National Portrait Gallery for the Elaine de Kooning exhibit.
http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/exhdekooning.html
So very much to love here! My notes from the visit tell me my favorites portraits were of Fairfield Porter #1, Harold Rosenberg #3, Donald Barthelme, Bernice Sobel and Aladar Marbergen #3.

Pertaining to the Harold Rosenberg portrait, a critic noted that the painter's canvas is "an arena in which to act--rather than a space in which to reproduce, redesign, analyze or 'express' an object." This comment will be fully embodied in my future paintings!!!

There was a fascinating video of Elaine deKooning talking while she painted the portrait of Aristodemis Kaldis, who looked to be a huge personality--I'll have to research more about him later. I just found that the transcript is online, here:
http://www.npg.si.edu/docs/EDKpaints.pdf

Last but not least, the final museum in my odyssey was the Duncan Philips Collection. I arrived in perfect time to join the docent-led talk, which focused on the large Matisse painting, Studio, Quai St. Michel, and hear some of what people saw in the painting, based on compositon, color, etc. It's always so rewarding to look deeply into a painting to grasp its meaning. They also had--on loan from the National Gallery in DC, East Wing--the Matisse painting Open Window, Collioure (1905). Adjacent to the painting was a note that Diebenkorn spent hours admiring the Matisse painting Studio, Quai St. Michel (which the docent had focused on)--and that the window theme is visible in his Interior with view of Ocean, which was also on view there (images included, above).

Then I flew home... so that's a wrap!

DC:  Sept. 23-26, 2015

Ron as Roulin

Kay Elmore, Ron as Roulin, oil on Canvas, 16" x 20"

10/10/15 - Addendum.  Top image is current state of the painting--made good headway with it yesterday.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
One of the paintings at The Barnes is Van Gogh's The Postman, Joseph-Etienne Roulin (1889) (see below).  No, not "one of the paintings" ....my favorite painting there, as is usually the case in any museum I've been in that has a Van Gogh painting in their exhibit.

I guess it was on my mind when I took the train into town the next day, from Lansdowne into Philadelphia. I saw a SEPTA worker walking through the train cars, and almost grabbed his coattail but he was moving too fast. I knew I wanted to paint him. So when the train stopped, I jumped off and asked if I could take his picture. He wasn't too crazy about the idea, but agreed if I promised to send him a picture of the painting. No problem--I will happily send it when it's done.

Started it today. So fun, it just puts a smile on my face! His dreads will go nicely with the loopy lime-green patterned background of Van Gogh's original composition, which I'm posting here for reference.

Vincent Van Gogh, The Postman, Joseph-Etienne Roulin (1889)

Oh--one other thing--I'm not generally able to get a likeness of someone, but this is him! (Ron, not Roulin.) This is the closest likeness I've ever achieved. I hope I can hang onto it when I lay the paint down.

10/8/15

Another painting under way....

If I wasn't so slow about getting my trip posts written, the images might be in chronological order. But no.

This painting is underway from a photo, taken on the way back to my hotel from the MFA in Boston. Oh, there was a lovely walk along the "Emerald Necklace" that morning too, I forgot to post that. Oh well, this was dusk, after a long day in the museum which included a bit of sketching too.

While this painting is of a scene in Boston, and my last post I was in Philly... next I'm posting about Washington, D.C. experiences.  This isn't confusing, is it?

Philly Fountain, dusk  
16" x 10", oil on board
10/6/15

Vuillard, Van Gogh, Pissarro.... it's Philly!

Vuillard, and detail

Van Gogh, and detail

Pissarro, and detail

Philly, Day 2
Ahhhh, what a relief was the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It's the Tao of museum experiences... a quiet temple to visual elegance, in a building that slurps you up into its mysterious insides. I would spin an eloquent web of verbal description, but....   I'd rather look at art!

Here are a few of my favorites--favorite for their juicy, generous brush work. The details are worth the price of admission. The Vuillard: oh my gosh, look at those COLORS!! And Van Gogh must have used a whole tube of paint on that baby's gown. No wonder Theo had to keep sending him supplies! Pissarro's crowd detail? Well, it looks like Pollock mined the old man for ideas.

Edouard Vuillard, "Flowers with Leda" (and Detail)
Vincent Van Gogh, "Portrait of Madame Augustine Roulin and Baby Marcelle" (and Detail)
Camille Pissarro, "Fair on a Sunny Afternoon, Dieppe" (and Detail)

Sept. 22, 2015

Philly: day One.

For starters, a lovely visit with a long-time friend from Austin days. Lansdowne made me think I'd stepped into a way-back machine! ha! I especially enjoyed the train station there, and trips into town were fast and on time.

On my first full day, the first museum I excitedly scurried off to was The Barnes collection. Sadly, no photos of the collection are allowed. And worse! Read on.

I dislike posts about museum visits when I have no visuals to show, but still, I feel compelled to explain my negative reaction to The Barnes. First, I could not disagree more with the man's presentation aesthetic. It is simply exhausting to make your way through that museum. And something in me feels that Mr. Barnes himself would not be happy with some aspects of it.

The first room after entering contains what are deemed the superstars of the collection. They are surprisingly dark--in terms of what might be expected of post-impressionist work--suggesting to me that they need a proper cleaning. The dark palette employed by Picasso--for instance--is not helped by the enormous windows flanking his large, vertical painting. My eyes dialed down immediately, amplifying the darkness of his color scheme.  I cannot provide an image of the painting in question--no photos allowed in the Barnes. (Which is doubly annoying, given that his mission was "educational", and photos of the works would have been tremendously appreciated by this painter, yours truly.)

Given that no photos are allowed, I began to sketch the offending gallery scheme and was immediately halted by the guard who informed me... "no sketching". R U kidding me? This is incredulous!!!  I'm fairly certain that Mr. Barnes would have been rolling over in his grave over that! All of this transpired in the first room, and it was downhill from there.

Also, in this first room, I was surprised about how blue (and dead looking) Renoir's flesh tones were. Has the blue come forward, over time? Did he perhaps use Alizarin crimson as well, which is a fugitive paint color (and so, leaving the blue visible)?

This collection makes you work your arse off. There are no wall tags to identify artist/title/etc. There is, instead, a little booklet for each room (which you have to put back; available for purchase in the store) that provides the I.D. info. If you are trying to follow the audio guide, the # in the booklet does not correspond to the audio # to punch in. Also, an audio # that you may think will apply to the painting adjacent to it--but no it does not!--it will apply to a grouping--or to the whole wall.That said, the audio--when occasionally provided--was the most helpful feature of the museum, in terms of understanding Barnes's thought processes regarding the collection's presentation. Whether or not one agrees with his premises, at least they are explained.

Sept. 21, 2015

Purple Buoys

I interrupt the regularly scheduled programming for this announcement.  lol

I did my first post-east coast painting; this from a couple of reference photos taken on Monhegan (one of which I posted already). Yay!  A finished painting is a rarity, and I do think this one's done.

Purple Buoys, oil on board, 15-7/8" x 10-1/2"

9/30/15

Sargent at The Met

This is a place-saver for many more images to come. Just a few choice details from the 100 or so works on view at this awesome John Singer Sargent exhibit.

Sept. 18, 2015

On to NYC

 Seen at the Whitney Museum:  Edward Hopper, study for Nighthawks

It's hard to choose just a few photos from three days in NYC! Sargent at The Met--I will add a few of those later. That was my main objective--to see the huge collection of paintings he did of artist friends--and the show was even better than one might imagine.

I opted for the Whitney on day 2. I'll keep my opinions about modern art to myself; the new building was worth the visit, and I'm always happy to see a Hopper or two. And along the way, I enjoyed the Gansevoort Market a lot. A very interesting neck o' the woods down there in the meat-packing district.

The other photos (after the Hopper study) are random phone pics, from my very enjoyable strolls around the city.

Sept. 17 - 20, 2015

Next Stop, Boston

After a brief return to Bangor for birthday and regrouping, I was off to Boston. The MFA recently received new donations of Sargent correspondence and personal drawings and such. A nice adjunct to my anticipated NYC visit to the Met. Here are a couple of Sargent paintings.
Top:  Mrs. Fiske Warrent (Gretchen Osgood) and Her Daughter Rachel, 1903
Bottom:  Nude Study of Thomas E. McKeller, about 1917-20

Of course there is plenty else to see in the museum, here are a couple of decorative arts ensembles.

Sept. 16, 2015