J.M.W. Turner at Mystic Seaport

J.M.W. Turner: Watercolors from Tate

Conversations with Turner:  The Watercolors

Mystic Seaport

November 22, 2019

On Friday, November members of the Woodlot Lane Painters: Linda Arnold, Sandra Gifford and Dianne Langlois set off for Mystic Seaport Museum to see the J.M.W. Turner exhibition of watercolors from the Tate.  As it is the only venue for the this exhibition, we were very excited that this exhibition afforded us.

An aside: The Woodlot Painter are a happy trio who came together to continue to paint during the summer when the New Britain Museum of American Art painting group is suspended.  We also add a weekly session when time permitted to support each others efforts.  For each session we select a work by a master painter to challenge us as we tried to improve our techniques without the benefit of a real instructor.  We firmly believe that this format helps our painting.  The tea and dessert following each painting session also make for a pleasant afternoon regardless of how much success we have with out painting.

Given the background of our group we were anxious to look at each of Turner's paintings with an eye to how he achieved success with watercolors.  Over the course of almost two hours we looked and tried to imagine the technique he used to make his landscape come to life.  I am not sure we learned any of his secrets, but I can certainly acknowledge that we were all inspired.

The exhibition included 90 works spanning the entire career of Turner. The works were selected from the vast legacy known as the "Turner Bequest".   The art we saw was a clear example of his devoted to experimentation with composition and use of colors.  It is his use of color that more impressed us in his later works.  

Mystic Seaport Museum opened the contemporary Thompson Exhibition Building in September 2016. Named for the late trustee, Wade Thompson, and designed by the renowned Connecticut firm Centerbrook Architects and Planners, the 14,000-square-foot facility includes an outstanding exhibition space, the Collins Gallery, which is the crown jewel among the Museum’s seven such galleries.

After we finished with the exhibition, we had lunch and walked around the campus of the seaport until we were caught in the rain.

Our vist and conversation with Turner was a real treat!

Georgia O'Keefe comes to Connecticut

   

 The Beyond: Georgia O'Keeffe and Contemporary Art

                                  February 22, 2019–June 2, 2019

     Enormous flowers, luscious colors, desert landscapes, feminine forms, and still     lifes. Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986) pioneered revolutionary ways of visually interpreting the world through her early embrace of abstraction and effusive use of color and is recognized as one of the preeminent American painters of the twentieth century. Her art has intrigued viewers and artists alike for generations, and this spring, the New Britain Museum of American Art will present The Beyond: Georgia O’Keeffe and Contemporary Art, an innovative exhibition that celebrates her work and legacy. Drawn from important public and private collections across the country, The Beyond will bring together three dozen iconic works—spanning O’Keeffe’s long career and the full range of her output—as the centerpiece of a unique exploration. Grouped by theme—Flowers; Cities and Deserts; Still Lifes; The Intangible Thing; Finding the Figure; and The Beyond—O’Keeffe’s paintings and sculptures will appear alongside works by twenty contemporary artists that evoke, investigate, and elaborate upon the images and approaches that mark O’Keeffe’s career.

The Beyond will examine the lasting impact and legacy of O’Keeffe’s work as a touchstone for artists working today, showing the continuing connections between our collective history and our present. 

This exhibition will not make one-to-one comparisons between O’Keeffe and the contemporary artists included here. Rather, the work of these artists is intended to expand on conversations and themes O’Keeffe presented in her work and her life, creating new ways of seeing and understanding the mother of American Modernism. The New Britain Museum of American Art is proud to be the final and only northeast venue for the exhibition, following its presentation at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, and the North Carolina Museum of Art. 

Lyman Allyn - Watercolors 2019

Discovering New Beauty: Watercolor Landscapes of the Northeast

William Trost Richards, The Rocks at Newport, Rhode Island, 1881, gouache on paper, private collection.

“I have made some new walks and discovered new beauties, and believe that I could from Newport scenery make more charming pictures than I ever dreamed of before.”
-William Trost Richards

Landscapes tell stories about place, history, and belonging, capturing the beauty of the world around us. Discovering New Beauty: Watercolor Landscapes of the Northeast examines the varying landscape of the Northeast over the last hundred or so years. Drawn largely from the Lyman Allyn’s permanent collection, this exhibition includes watercolors of the forest, fields, hills, shoreline, and sea. It also explores the built environment, with urban and suburban scenes that reflect on changing demographics. The exhibition looks at watercolor as a medium, exploring different artists’ techniques and considering how the quick-drying pigments are useful for artists working outdoors.

    

Left: Bancel LaFarge, Cornstalks, 1933, watercolor on paper. Lyman Allyn Art Museum, gift of Mrs. Bancel LaFarge, 1943.462; Right:  William Louis Sonntag, Sr.,Rocks and Mountains, ca. 1880s, watercolor on paper. Lyman Allyn Art Museum, gift of Frederick A. Moore, 1956.82.

       I saw this exhibition announced and put it on my calendar.  On the spur on the moment, I called Sandra, a painting friend and invited her to join me.  It turned out to be an absolutely wonderful show.  We had the museum almost to ourselves so we could examine each painting, discuss  how it might have been painted and what we learned from looking at the work.  It was a delightful morning.  When it was over we went outside to the museum picnic table to eat apples, raisins and crackers.  

Clearly, I will be a more regular visitor to the Lyman Allyn Museum.

National Gallery of Canada and Gauguin July 2019

One winter Sunday morning Harriet in our separate location read in the Art Daily that there would a first exhibition of Gauguin portraits at the National Gallery of Canada come summer.  She emailed and I called and we thought this would be an excellent exhibition to see.  During the spring we decided that it would make sense to combine it with a trip to Saratoga to see the New York City Ballet at the SPAC.  Plans were made and reservations made.

We checked into he Gideon Putnam on July 16 and headed out to the National Museum of Dance a pleasant walk down the Avenue of the Pines.

The main exhibit DANCERS in FILM was a collection of American and international version of Hollywood film posters where dance was prominently featured.  The posted dated from 1918 to the 1980.  It was fund to see the posters and recall the movies and artists.  The substantial profiles of the new inductees contained interested facts, photographs and videos gave new insights into the history of dance.

I have visited the museum of numerous occasions but I think Harriet found it a good way to start our trip.

After traveling through the north county with a quick stop at Canton New York to cut cross the main campus of St. Lawrence University, we arrived at  Ottawa.  We quickly checked into The Lord Elgin and started our walking tour of Ottawa.