Rainy Days Can Be Museum Days

 

My regular plein air day ended up cold and rainy.  The Hyde Collection had two new exhibits so I decided a rainy day could be a museum day.  I am glad I made the trip and definitely had eight dollars worth of fun.

 

Historic Hyde houses

 



 

Banner for one of the shows

 

I had my museum pencil ready and took lots of notes.  It is good to see paintings in real life rather that reprints in books.  I enjoyed taking a slow and thoughtful look at everything.  I love American art and enjoyed looking at the works on loan from The Westmorland Museum. 
 

 

Things I noticed: 

 

Paintings are really home decorating objects and often look better in homes with all the other furnishings. They never mentioned this in art school. 

 

Even master painters can have dud paintings. 

 

I prefer representational art that has thoughtful complexity and skillfulness with the use of media.  I understand the counter balance of modern art being less formal and challenging the norms but when you compare the styles side by side it seems one made the effort to get dressed up for the event while the other came in slippers.

 

 

Personal Favorites in this show

 

 

  

 

Robert Henri Dutch Fisherman 1907

 

This portrait was a fascinating combination of strong darks and lights like Caravaggio and impasto expressionistic brushstrokes like Van Gogh.  It seemed loose and primitive but the more you look at it,  the more you realize each stoke was masterfully placed making a blended image from a distance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

Childe Hassam  The Inner Harbor  1909
 

I love the bright colors and cleverly arranged seascape and composition.
Somehow he made the unusual portrait, or vertical format, work for a landscape.

Alfred Thompson Bricher

Point Judith, Narragansett,
Rhode Island 1885
 

This was a luminous sea scape with a warm golden light and beautiful sea shore.  This was my favorite, the one I would buy if I could and had a big enough coupon.
 

 

 

Malcome Purcell  Portrait of Helen Gallagher 1928
 

This portrait was very well done.  The light was strong and the composition was interesting in a square-ish shape rather than a rectangle. ( I think this reproduction is cropped like the souvenir note card.)   It looked like a John Singer Sargent portrait.

Brochure of the show
 

Anne Diggory's Hybrid Visions was so interesting to me.  I was pleasantly surprised by how lovely and interesting all the work was.  I love the idea of combining photographs, painting, plein air and the Adirondacks.  It was fascinating to see how Ms. Diggory constructed her works using all four elements.  For me, it played on the idea of what do we perceived to be real, a painting or a photograph.  The paintings can seem more dream like from a memory yet photos when enlarged have a blurry look from the past too.  I was very inspired for my own work as I took at least four enjoyable laps around to see each piece.  It is some of the best contemporary art I have seen.  It makes the most of modern tools and technology: Photoshop, photography, printing on canvas and acrylic paint and keeps the best qualities of landscape paintings of the past.
 

   

 

I wonder if Edward Hopper ever went to Starbucks?

 

 

 

Nighthawks by Edward Hopper 1942

 

 

 

 

Thankful for a good snack after my art adventure.

"Do you want me to heat up your chocolate chip cookie?"

What a great question and an easy way to make a friend for life.