Grant's Tomb--Proportion and Grace

The views of the Hudson River and Riverside Church in the pink light of sunset!
Free admission until 5 PM. Bone up on the Civil War.
In the summer, kids ride bikes to the tomb to enjoy the natural air-conditioning of the marble building.
http://www.nps.gov/gegr/index.htm

JUPITER SYMPHONY SET IN ART

The GOOD SHEPHERD Presbyterian Church at 152 66th St, Manhattan hosts the JUPITER SYMPHONY on alternate Mondays at 2 PM and 7:30 PM.
THE BEST MUSIC BARGAIN IN TOWN AT $10.00.
Varied and quality program by top young players building resumes and reputations. Many standing ovations, set in historic splendor.
Jan 2 and 18 are the nest concerts. See you there!
http://www.jupitersymphony.com/

NEW POETRY BLOG

Check out my new poetry blog---
http://zoomopantoum.blogspot.com

Italy???? No. Park Avenue

The small chapel off the transcept of St. Bart's at 50th Street. Chant there; the sound resounds and doubles on itself. Only 4 chairs. Great place in Manhattan to stop.

They always welcome you.

More to come- Linnie

POETS HOUSE FULL OF ART

Poets House, in Battery Park, is filled with open reading space, big views of the Hudson, and 50 thousand volumes of contempory poetry. The art is funky and beat, like sone of the poets. A great free space to read and write, or research!

www.poetshouse.org/

Give yourself a Membership as a holiday gift!

********************************************

Gwendolyn Brooks

presenting at Poets House in 1990.

Father Christmas?

Looks like Old St. Nick. But no--he's King David, as in Goliath.

This window at Trinity Church in Boston depicts Solomon, son of David, being charged with building the Temple. David would not live to see his Temple, designed from a dream.

In this holiday season, enjoy your family,

knowing that you will be charged with

fewer family obligations than Solomon!

TAKE YOUR CAMERA EVERYWHERE

16th CENTURY CONVEX MIRROR and FRAME

at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

This blogger photographs the mirror and the man

exiting behind her.

More to come- Linnie

THE RED BOOK-- Carl Jung's

He had a RED BOOK. I have a Green Book. Compilations of the most important dreams, images and understandings over a lifetime.

Jung's calligraphy and illuminated work, full of paintings, mandalas and dream images, is the most imporsant unpublished work in the world. FOR THE FIRST TIME AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC for $10.00 and a trip to 150 W. 17th Street just east of 7th Ave in Chelsea.

Jung (1875-1961) drew his first Mandala in 1917. The museum has an entire floor devoted to the world's mandalas, if you want to see more in the Rubin Museum of Art.

Journal pages handwritten in German and Latin with drawings and sketches line the exhibit room.

Paintings in oil, watercolor, gold leaf, and pen adorn the wall spaces around the book, like a sacred shrine with side chapels.

One of the top 10 ezperiences of my life. Knowing about the Red Book and making my own, has been constant forwarding action into places I could only wonder about.

Exhibit runs until January 25, 2010

You don't have to fly to Switzerland! And I met several Swiss there, who flew to NY to see it!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/magazine/20jung-t.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

for the NY Times Review-

Thanks to Dick Ridington...

Rembrandt's Portraits at Antheneum

If you have a CT library card, you can reserve a free museum pass at your library. Otherwise the admission fee is steep for the portraits, the small but powerful first floor and third floor modern works.
The best of this museum is the second floor which is currently closed. It contains a rich history of CT in furniture, rooms, items of decoration, painting and daily life. This floor really sings with history and craft.
Catch Rembrandt but return for the second floor when it re-opens.
More to come- Linnie

Veterans' Day Nov 11

Born in 1752 in the Charter of Connecticut, fought in the Continental Line and the Revolutionary War, saluting Private Samuel Franklin, buried  Woodbury, CT, 1826. (Where CT Rt 6 meets CT Rt 317, Exit 15 Interstate-84)
More to come- Linnie

Best Art Museum Bargains NYC

Admission by donation of your choice (even 1 penny) to:
Brooklyn Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art

However other admissions are set:
Whitney Museum $18.00
Guggenheim          $18.00
Frick Museum       $18.00
Neue Galerie         $20.00
Cooper-Hewitt Design $20.00
Rubin Museum of Art (Tibetan Art)   $20.00
Jewish Museum $15.00--the bargain, Best building, too, by architect CPH Gilbert.
More to come- Linnie

Met Museum of Art Exhibits

Vermeer: The Milkmaid, 1st floor, until November 29
American Landscapes, 1st floor, ongoing
Silk & Bamboo: China, 1st floor, until Feb 7
Jain Manuscripts, 3rd floor, until March 21
Am. Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 2nd floor, until 1/24
Art of Samurai, 2nd floor, 1/10
Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1st floor, until November 15
Cinnabar Chinwese Carving, 3rd floor, until 2/21
These 8 are the BEST of the 24 exhibits currently running, in addition to the permanent collections. Currently, the first floor is enough for a one day experience. Plan to lunch in the basement cafe for best prices. $1.00 admission fee will provide for the day. Requested is $20.00 but not required becasue of government subsidies. Quick walk from the Lexington Avenue Subway 86th Street stop.

American Landscapes Exhibit, Lehman Wing, 1st floor- Thx AMX!

Budget Watcher Warning: Stay clear of the gift shops except for the last 2 tables of books which are 60-80% off retail.

NEW- Georgia O'Keefe Abstractions

The best of Georgia O'Keefe is in her abstractions. The Whitney Museum (Madison and 75th) not to be outdone by her MA neighbors has launched into O'Keefe abstracts as a real thing. More refined than Arthur Dove's and somewhat overworked, they are yet a delight of color and form. Forget the critic's erotic interpertation and let the paintings take you higher. Whitney closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Show runs until January 17.
More to come- Linnie

Thinking of You

A day to remember the consummate male cat, Cupid,

and the woods he loved.

We love them; then they leave.

1929, Artist and Patrons-

Remember Kandinsky  at the Gugghnheim?

Pictured between Mrs. Guggenheim and Baroness Rebay, Kandinsky poses with Solomon R. Guggenheim, who built the museum and bought the paintings!

The Guggenheims, An American Epic, by John H. Davis

Goodbye to Leaves, Golden and Falling

Statue of Liberty at Dawn

Photo of the Statue of Liberty in the New York Harbor at sunrise. The sunlight has not yet reached the Brooklyn roof-tops where Craig Chessari took this photo at dawn. It was exhibited at the Pacific Street Gallery in New London, CT where the show is now all packed up and off to other walls. Sorry, if you missed it!

Safe Journey and thank you for all the love, Spam

"Open you heart more to love."

Harold Klemp, Talk- The Secret Path to Heaven

What Painting Reveals

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul and paints his own nature into his pictures.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)

Minneapolis Art Exhibits Passing By

• Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA)- Masterpieces from the Louvre
• Weisman Art Museum- Raushenberg collages
• American Swedish Institute- local Swedish life
• Walker Art Center- contempoary videos and sculpture
• The Museum of Russian Art- photographs of Silk Road, Tsar commissioned

More to come- Linnie

Painting is the grandchild of nature. It is related to God.
Rembrandt (1606-1669)

Beauty Around Us

No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace,
As I have seen in one autumnal face.
John Donne

Wolf Kahn in Kent, Connecticut

Pastelist Wolf Kahn is exhibiting at the Morrison Gallery in Kent on Route 7 in NW CT.http://www.themorrisongallery.com/ You will not be the same after you see his new work. Throw out olive and drab red. Bring on orange and yellow. Begin a painting, even if in your imagination. Large and bright.
More to come- Linnie

Novel Unveiled at Hudson Valley Writer's Center: 72 attend

Litchfield Times writes about writer, Mary Carroll Moore
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=2303&dept_id=478844&newsid=20379057&PAG=461&rfi=9

Amazon link to QUALITIES OF LIGHT and this blogger's review.
http://www.amazon.com/Qualities-Light-Mary-Carroll-Moore/dp/1935226061/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255954184&sr=1-1

Check this one out. Next public reading is at The Hickory Stick Bookstore, Washington Depot, CT on Sunday, November 1st at 2:00 PM. See you there!

Local Coffee Stops for Art

If you have art pieces to show and no gallery scheduled for this year, begin small at coffee shops. The most popular ones want advance bookings of up to one year, but schedule now. I was surprised how much art flowed out of my hands when I knew I had three shows each year at coffee houses. To up the traffic and sales, make announcement postcards and have an opening event. Your fans and friends will support you and buy your art if the prices are reasonable to them
More to come- Linnie

Roof-top Garden at the Met

The Met exhibits that are currently running may keep you inside for the day: Vermeer's Milkmaid, Cinnabar, Luo Ping, Saint-Gaudens, Robert Frank, and Pablo Bronstein. But dont forget the outdoor roof for the splendor of Central Park. The roof access will be closed this winter, so get there this month!
More to come- Linnie

Read my Book Review

Author Pete Brooks with his wife Gloria, Pacific Street Gallery owner Cindy Samul and this blogger at the gallery where Pete unveiled his new book, God's Love is a Two-way Street, last month.
This is the URL on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Love-Two-Way-Street/dp/1448682312/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254918120&sr=1-2
This books covers real life adventures as seen through the eyes of one who loves God. Miracles abound.
Let me know how you like it!
More to come- Linnie

"FOOD IS ART"

                                       Pie Maker Nancy and art blogger Linnie

Writer Isa Morton (The Capstone Decision by Isabelle Morton on Amazon) responded, "Food is art!"
              http://www.amazon.com/Capstone-Decision-Isabelle-Morton/dp/0615271561/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254848519&sr=1-1
More to come- Linnie

Art of the Harvest- Apple Pie

After weekends of attending community events to commeorate the harvest- from cornmazes to tractor parades- this blogger votes for the apple pie made from Bethlehem's March Farm apples. Nancy McMillan is the baker of pie, composer of soul-rending piano compositions, and March Farm advocate.

Free Entry to MoMA

Remember that Friday night from 5:00 to 8:00 PM is free admission to the Museum of Modern Art at 11 West 53rd Street. The huge Monet Waterlilies are waiting for you! And so is the mammoth Balzac by Rodin.

Denver Art Museum

Maybe the folks in Colorado spend too much time on the mountainsides hiking up and down. Nothing seems plumb or square in Denver's art world. I lived there for years, sustained by the European and American collections. It was an odd building, but the art was nourishing. Especially the traveling shows from all over the world, traded for the opportunity to use Denver's finest.

Fast forward 15 years, and DAM now competes with the world of sculptured steel. Dashing though it may be, it feels violent, Pointed out over the street, the cutting edge makes one nervous about the intent of the art toward the city.

Maybe it is reminiscent of rock-climbing experiences, but a precipice is not an easy Sunday climb. Neither is the investment of this art museum toward that which is not art that can be shared with the world.

Guggenheim and Kandinsky Dehydration

The sidewalk is packed with vendors. Exhausted patrons line the low margin fences of the museum using them as benches. No one seems happy or energized. Is the Kandinsky Exhibit too extensive, covering the spiral and the 4th floor? I wonder when I hear no laughing or excitement for the next activity. Conversations in the gift shop make you question the $18.00 experience.

I suggest a metabolism check before entering the 3-4 hour journey. Make sure you have a pick-me-up in your pocket. And drink plenty of water before buying you ticket. It could be simple as museum dehydration, a homeland security blight on museum goers

Spend Autum in New England Painting or Photographing

Woodbury, CT celebrates 350th Anniversary.

What were you doing in 1659?

Woodbury was becoming a town. The Litchfield County village celebrated all weekend on Route 6 with reenactments, food, music, and presentations. All six churches were open and the antiquing was fruitful. This Antique Capital of Connecticut is not to be missed for the vintage art. Their ads in Architectural Digest and Antiques and Fine Art are long-standing and delicious. Stop near the Post Office at The Split-Rail for hometown cooking.

Charles Pierrepont Henry Gilbert, Architect of Park Slope

Park Slope, Brooklyn, prides itself in architectural beauty as a designated historical district. Someone even paid for signs depicting a map of the area and bragging a bit. The sad mistake on the signs is crediting the WRONG ARCHITECT. The signs credit Cass Gilbert,the designer of the US Customs House ( now the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, at Bowling Green) and the Woolworth Building, in 1913 when it was the tallest building in the world.

The correct architect is the "mansion specialist," according to architectural writer Christopher Gray, C.P.H. Gilbert. Born in Brooklyn to a wealthy founding family, C.P.H. studied at the Beaux Arts School at the Sorbonne in Paris. He built the Fletcher-Sinclair limestone French Gothic beauty on 5th Avenue at 79th Street (now The Ukrainian Institute) and the Woolworth Mansion of Long Island. He designed half of the north Slope nearest Prospect Park and Grand Army Plaza. Remarkable houses, recalling one of his mentors, H.H. Richardson and his perfection of Romanesque Revival style (See the train station and library in New London, CT)

The photo behind the title of this blog is a street of buildings designed by C.P.H. Gilbert. I swoon at the roof-lines.

Art in Grand Central Terminal

I had dinner with a good friend at Grand Central tonight. Saw the place full of people and great art downstairs in the eating area.

Here is a photo of a vintage photo taken in GCT dining area downstairs.

The pity of it is Vanderbilt Hall, upstairs, gorgeous and empty. I hope that art can grace this area before the clatter of hawkers begins the holiday shopping season...

Architects Reed and Stem, Plan; Warren and Wetmore, Architectural Details and Facades, 1913

Restorations resulted from the work of Jackie Onassis, 1998

This Saturday---Pacific Street in New London or in NYC see Kandinsky at Guggenheim!

The Dawn of Understanding is running for two more weeks at the Pacific Street Gallery in New London, Works are strong and prices are affordable. Great way to add to your collection.

Seasoned artists study the dawn or the ah-ha moments of life.

Phone 860-444-7060 for directions and gallery hours, evenings and Wednesday.

http://pacificstreetart.blogspot.com/

See my first posting below!

Photographers Sheila Bontreger, Pete Brooks, Craig Chessari, Bruce Fuller, Dick Ridington, Beccy Tanner.

Paintings by Jackie Flatow, Dermot McNamara, Mary Carroll Moore, Kristin York, Linnie York, Troy Zaushny.

Multi Media by Gloria Brooks, Jean Giordano, Ann Samul, Cindy Samul, Lynelle Youngquist.

Guggenheim opening of the long awaited and long publicized Kandinsky exhibit running until January 13, 2010.

See you there!

Antiques and Fine Art Magazine, Early Summer 2009

Still available on newstands and libraries.

If you are reading this, we both missed the Clark Art Institute exhibit in Williamstown, MA that closed September 7---"Dove/O'Keefe: Circles of Influence." (www.clarkart.edu/)

The magazine has a EIGHT-PAGE (!) color spread on the main points in the exhibit.

I am a HUGE fan of Arthur Dove (1880-1946). He was a CT farmer with abstraction of nature in his blood. Discovered and exhibited by Alfred Steiglitz in the early part of the last century, he became friend and colleague of Georgia O'keefe, also discovered by Steiglitz.

I discovered Dove through my sister and the New Britian Museum of American Art in New Britian, CT. (http://www.nbmaa.org/) A traveling exhibit of his final works, which were minature oils on paper, was there in 2002. Since I missed that exhibit, I traveled to Kansas where they live at The Wichita Art Museum to view them directly. It changed my life and ignited art for me.

He can be found in many small museums, like Portland, Maine and Wichita, Kansas. But his is also actively collected by the Met and the Whitney. He is always shown near O'Keefe, so if you find her paintings and you find his. The biggest collection on display is The Phillips Collection in the heart of Washington, DC, in Phillips' mansion, which was built to house his collection.

Look for Dove. Many used books on the Internet.

Florence Griswold Museum

Just off the Interstate (95) in Old Lyme is a fetching big yellow house. This boarding house on Main Street backing up to the Lieutenant River was home to the Connecticut Impressionists Art Colony. Walk the grounds and gardens but go for the large art exhibit. Life-long collector, Clemmet C. Moore, specialized in the Connecticut Impressionists before it was cool.

The amazing collection fills most of the new exhibit hall (a strange futuristic white rendition of a barn) and you can plan of finding dear favorites that you may or may not find in the companion book published with the show.

I loved the inclusion of many showscapes and my husband was captured deep in the heart by a harbor scene with seagulls. We lingered, walked the gardens and lingered again with the paintings. Yes, we are goofy in love, but the paintings made us linger. This show runs through October 18, 2009.

On the way out of town we picked up an iced tea, juice, and a cookie for $15.65! I suggest you bring your lunch.

www.florencegriswoldmuseum.org

Tooling Around

New Art Exhibit: The Dawn of Understanding

http://pacificstreetart.blogspot.com/

11 Pacific Street, New London, CT

Attended the opening this weekend. The place was packed. Mulit-media, mostly photography and painting with some multi-meedia and sculpture. New book released at the opening as well- by Peter Brooks. Most of the 18 artists were present.
Prices were really affordable.
Runs to October 1st.