Will I go, I don't know.

Today at Haley & Steele in Boston, a gallery since the 1890s, there is a reception of small works with great artists like Schmid, Aspevig, Guzik, Guzman, Keys and others.  I planned to go and I want to go but parking is difficult at the best of times, and this is the big shopping weekend and it's 13 degrees out right now, so a little cold to walk any distance.  I'm looking outside at the ice on the river.  There's only a small slice that's not frozen over where the current is flowing through and the birds are splashing around.  The sky is blue and the water reflections are various shades of light ultramarine.  Everything on land is covered with frost. (8:25 a.m.)

Museum Hours

Museum Hours
Last night's movie at the Screening Room in Newburyport, MA--I went as a result of seeing it advertised in the Newburyport Art Association's newsletter.  I feel like I spent a week or so at the Art Museum in Vienna.  It was a thought-provoking piece, which, after going only the evening before to another thought-provoking show at Harvard Square's Oberon theater, has my head reeling in a tornado of disparate ideas.

Annual David Curtis Party

Another wildly successful party by Joan Lockhart!  Joan's new digs in Gloucester was the scene of the party as 40-50 of his disciples gathered to pay homage again and eat, drink and be merry last Saturday night.  Joan is a master (or mistress?) of home renovation and decoration and has done it again this time in her new condo in a re-purposed school building.  Beautiful high ceilings provide for what should be called the Lockhart Museum because she collects Cape Ann masters as well as other works she enjoys.  David's wife, Judy, was visiting her family in England, so we missed her this year.  David, however, did regale everyone with stories after dinner.  Joan's staple mac and cheese was extraordinary as usual, everyone wants her recipe.  Other pot luck dishes were brought and desserts and beverages of course.  It was a wonderful evening seeing everyone I haven't seen for a while as I don't travel to Gloucester as much as I used to. 
I took photos with my phone and will post them here when I can.

MFA Sargent Show, more than I expected

My friend, Carol, maybe I'll paint this.

At Pitti Palace--I was there this September and took photos of this fountain.

I don't remember ever seeing this one before.  He loves to paint white.  Reminds me of Hibbard's whites.

So we had a great day in Boston Thursday.  We saw the Sargent show and the Hip Hop Chic 70's Show.  There were so many more Sargent paintings, both oil and water, than I expected to see and many I don't remember ever seeing before.  There was a video presentation as well with an artist doing a watercolor copy of one of his works to show the technique. 

Afterwards Carol and I had both a food fest and a wine fest!  p.s.  Also Margaritas!

Visiting Sargent at MFA Boston

Tomorrow's adventure is to go in to see the Sargent Show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with my European traveling companion, Carol Pike Webb.  I've lately been thinking about working in a sketchbook with watercolor and ink which is one of the activities that Sargent enjoyed doing.
Click here to see Sargent show video and slideshow.

4 in 4 for Carol

The Daily Paint Works Challenge - 4 in 4

Mary Pyche, 12x12", oil on canvas, For Grandpa $150

 It was really a lot of fun to paint these cups.  I'm just back from Dreama's Workshop and still had her recommended colors on my palette, so these are painted with transparent colors with her recommended brush--a wide flat brush.  I haven't submitted to Carol Marine's DPW site (and her husband, David's, of course, who does a remarkable job of creating and administering the site) for a long time and hope I can 'get back on the horse'. 

Dreama Tolle Perry Workshop, Oct. 8, 9 and 10.

At the Parish Center for the Arts, Westford, MA. about 20 of us are enjoying Dreama's workshop and learning about gorgeous color and it's application.  She has a rather unique method that has a very cheerful result.  The venue is excellent and the instructor is outstanding as well.

Her palette contains mostly transparent colors and her method is wonderfully free (casual).  She is proficient and knowledgeable in the art of oil painting, has a great presentation and packs lots of information into short demos after which we all go to our easels and "give it a go".  She's a lot of fun and the group is a wonderful bunch of woman from all over the country who are disciples of her method.

I'm traveling to and from with an artist friend, Anika Savage, from Newburyport and we love the workshop so far.  A delicious lunch is included and tasty snacks abound.

Dreama's painting in progress.  We all painted from the same photo.

I am posting the daily activities of this adventure on my Mary Pyche Daily Blog so please visit the link to see our progress.

RAA talk with David and Judy Curtis

Judy Curtis

David Curtis

David Curtis talk at RAA, Theresa Bernstein Painting

October 2, 2013 at Rockport Art Association, Judy and David Curtis provided a very entertaining and informative talk about past artists in the permanent collection at RAA.  It's always a pleasure to attend events where art is discussed by knowledgeable people and in this case David is a great artist and Judy has authored many books on famous artists.  It so nice of them to present events like this.

David Curtis Painting

Mark Hayden demo, Haverhill MA

Sunday, Sept. 22nd, Mark did his first demo--it was at the Buttonwoods Historic Building.  He was invited by the Haverhill Art Association as they are trying to revive their membership.  It was very well attended, probably 50 people.  It was an excellent demo and here are some photos of the model and the artist with the portrait.  In less than 2 hours, Mark skillfully showed everyone how he proceeds with a portrait.  He works on sizes of features and relationships from the center of the face, out, with straight paint, no turps or mediums.  He plans ahead about the idea, the drawing idea, how dark and how colorful it should be. Working with color and value at the same time, he uses extra long bristle brushes that have bounce and can be easily shaped to conform to the shape of the stroke anticipated; he goes back and forth from side to side, watching for temperature in the light areas.  After a break, the drawing should be checked and the dark areas.  He likes to paint to music and depending on what he is doing, it could be slower or faster.  He mentioned that Daniel Greene taught him to keep a clean area on the palette to mix and to bring yourself to the painting.  Everyone enjoyed his demo and most likely, like me, picked up another good idea to experiment with.  What did he have to say about doing this demo?  "I'm not used to thinking about everything I do."

Nice Video from Sandy-Italy

My friend, Sandy, sent me this video of the 10 Best Things to Like About Italy.  Is was a nice reminder of what a wonderful trip we had.

Ten Best Things to Like About Italy

Italy 2013 Day 13

Up early, another fantastic breakfast, paid the room bill which was a lot less then we remembered it would be, ($80 each per night). Got the water bus Laliguna to the airport, a really nice way to end our visit. I bought a bracelet at the airport for 17 Euro and previously purchased a very green olive oil and a cream balsamic so my entire expenditures for the trip came to 27 Euro. All went well at the airport, the baggage arriving with the rest of the painting group from el Brodo (Modigliani). Our planes were fine, one arriving early and the other late, got home close to midnight and talked my husband's ear off until 4:30 a.m.  When I  got up and weighed myself I had only gained 4 lbs.

Next year's trip is to Umbria and anyone wishing to join us, call me quickly as these spots go fast.  I'll gladly supply some details.

Venice Mask

Huge Murano Glass Chandelier in front of Stained Glass Window at Pasaro Palace (our hotel)

Breakfast room and afternoon cocktails

Breakfast food, crisp crust, cheesy whipped cream filling, sponge cake, yummy berries

Italy 2013 Day 12

Breakfast was amazing--truly 4 Star! I had scrambled eggs, the usual color, not orange like where we were previously, a wiener (excellent quality), a croissant, a slice of the best salami I ever ate, a piece of peach, and to top it off, the best cake thing you can imagine, made with a filling of whipped cream and ricotta cheese with sponge cake.

So we figured that since its Tuesday that the museums would be open, the Academia was but the Guggenheim wasn't. The daVinci Exhibition was at the Academia and I'll get a book or two of it on-line when I get home.  We walked around for a while then headed to the islands of Burano and Torcello. We had to try several water bus stops to find the right one and then change from one to another during the trip. Burano is the lace island with the colorful houses and Torcello has an old 6th century church with many restorations of their massive mosaics. As with anywhere in Venice we had to walk a long ways.  They were charging 1.50 Euro to use the facilities so we figured we'd use the one on the boat. Along the walkway there were a few very elegant dining places and otherwise there wasn't anything. I checked out the menu at the first one and a glass of wine was 2 Euro so we figured that we'd get one and use their facilities. When we reached St. Marco again we went to the top of the Hotel Danielli as we had promised a friend that we would. A drink there was slightly cheaper than at Harry's Bar (we didn't have one at Harry's). I had a Frangelico, as it is an Italian liquor, and it came with a side of hazelnuts.  It is a great combination.  $50 American dollars for 2 drinks.  While descending to the main floor, the elevator stopped at the 3rd. floor, and WOW, to my surprise, it was Boston's Gardener Museum!  I immediately identified the resemblance. 

Going back to our hotel, we were turned around several times and figured that it took probably 4 miles to walk the 2 miles.  We tried to visit the Fra Church, but it was closed. 

Reaching our hotel we wanted to eat nearby and checked out all the nice places. The one we wanted to eat at was crowded with locals with reservations and we could go back an hour later but the host at our hotel gave us another suggestion, so we dined elsewhere having ample wine and great food. 

We can't believe how lucky we were and how wonderful everything was on this whole trip.

San Marco

San Marco mosaic

We had pizza and wine here (near Harry's Bar)

One of the dueling orchestras at dusk

Corner of Doges Palace at dusk, I loved the sky peeking through

Grand Canal, all roads lead to Pont d'Rialto (not) we got lost getting to it every time.

Close-up of huge mural at the Accademia

Another gorgeous huge painting at Accademia, How did they ever remove this from the source?

This little guy was a very popular photo op.

After finding out the the Guggenheim was closed, we planned to go to Burano.

Burano

The only McDonald's we saw in Venice was on this busy street near our hotel.

Italy 2013 Day 11

Driving to Venice in a smaller bus, we arrived around 11 and made our way to our hotel, Hotel Pesaro Palace, www.hotelpesaropalace.it, by vaperetto.  We had no problem getting there and the stop is exactly at the front door. We were kidding a couple of days ago about the picture on the website being our room, and alas it was! It was like a suite with our own outside sitting area, lots of Murano chandeliers, a gorgeous bathroom, and beautiful bedroom, gorgeous drapes, lots of windows, big mirrored closet with safe, TV, WIFI, refrigerator, minibar that wasn't very mini, tray ceiling, coco brown cloth padded walls, and you think I'm carrying on, I could go on a lot longer! It is a 4 Star Hotel right on the grand canal.

After checking in we went to St. Mark's Square in the day and later at dusk, we went to Harry's Bar to meet friends who weren't there, then ate nearby, had a carafe of wine, a delicious pizza, then ordered pork medallions with mushrooms. We took the early evening water bus to see the palatzos with their lights, chandeliers, muraled ceilings, etc.  After breakfast, we plan to hit the Academia and the Guggenheim.

Beautiful many-tiered Mural chandelier with stained glass in background

Sitting area near our hotel room.

Our bathroom

The hall inside our room

The bedroom section of our suite

Our private sitting area

Our bed

Lobby entrance to right and to Grand Canal on left, nice bonsai on pedestal table.

Entrance walkway to lobby and outside sitting area.

Outside sitting area and Grand Canal.

Beautiful Burano!

What a coincidence, I was in Burano 5 days ago! I'm taking a workshop with Dreama in a couple of weeks here in Massachusetts.

This video by Dreama Tolle Perry came into my inbox when I got home, and coincidently, she was in Venice at the same time I was and visited Burano (the island with the colorful houses) about five days after I was there.  This video will give you a good idea of what Burano is like.

Italy 2013 Day 10

Today was a bus trip to Faenza to visit the most amazing and huge ceramic museum. It has an immense collection of ceramics from everywhere and every period of history. The building itself was huge and very well constructed or renovated for this purpose. In the afternoon Carol and I dined at a restaurant suggested by the manager of our hotel and we had great food and enjoyed our Sunday Dinner. Many others in our group found great restaurants and all enjoyed their meals and the places where they ate.   Returning back to our hotel those of us going on to Venice packed and talked with the owner of this hotel about getting there, getting around there, and getting to the airport when we are heading home.  Carol and I located our hotel on the map and were able to bring

Approach to ceramic museum

it up on my iPad which is, sometimes, not an easy task.  At the last supper here at our hotel we all enjoyed special foods arranged by the hotel and Margaret spoke and handed out course certificates,  Arwed spoke, the owner spoke.  Everyone loved the workshop and tours and hotel. Gail Rose is cooking French Toast at 7:15 a.m  tomorrow and the bus leaves at 8.  Our luggage will be on the bus at Venice airport on Wednesday at 11:00. We tipped everyone and we are ready for our Venice experience. 

The following are some of the ceramics displayed in this enormous museum

These beautiful platters were painted 100 years ago or more, the artistry is amazing.

Newer work at the museum's modern section.

Restaurant dello Sport, a restaurant recommended by our hotel host at Modigliana, located near ceramic museum.