The Richard Family goes to Washington

click on photo for details

This past Easter weekend we flew to Washington DC for a 5-day getaway. It was our first visit here and one that I had anticipated for such a long time. I still remember our 6th grade teacher telling us that we should all try to visit the Smithsonian some day......Mrs Babineau would be pleased. We had visited London England twice before, and the two Capitols share many common traits; a Mall, grand monuments, amazing architecture and some of the most famous museums, most of which are free.

The year 2012 marks the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 and the 100th anniversary of the Gift of Cherry Trees to Washington DC from the Embassy of Japan. There are 1700 cherry trees around the Tidal Bassin and another 2000 spread around the city. We were there during the Easter Egg Roll on the White House Lawn hosted by the Obamas and the Cherry Blossom Festival. Many cherry blossoms were out in full bloom, especially in front of the Japanese Embassy and Arlington Cemetery. With the unusual warm weather and Spring coming so early this year, the variety around the Tidal Bassin had already reached it's foliage stage. 

We had the opportunity to view some amazing art at the Phillips Collection, the National Gallery of Art, the Renwick Gallery and the Hirshorn Museum / Sculpture Garden and my personal favorite the National Portrait Gallery /the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The paintings I was most anticipating were the Luncheon of the Boating Party by Auguste Renoir, the Vermeer's at the National Gallery of Art and the many Edward Hopper and John Singer Sargent's spread in the many museums listed above. 

We also visited most of the monuments and war memorials. We went on a guided tour of the Capitol Building, and breezed through the National Geographic Society, the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of Natural History, the Library of Congress, the US Botanical Garden, the National Postal Museum, the National Building Museum, the National Archives and last but not least the National Air and Space Museum. This last museum is listed after the Louvres in Paris as the world's 2nd most visited yearly. It really has the WOW factor. I was able to see the ''Spirit of St. Louis'' which was the inspiration of a painting earlier this year -view link for update. 

We really tried to cram up as much as we could during our stay, but we only scratched the surface. With that said, we hope to return sometime in the next decade as there are more than a dozen museums we did not have time to visit.

Held over Monet

Acrylic on gessoed hardboard, 12 x 9''

2010, #183

Two weeks ago, my 15 year old son Jean-Luc's soccer team was playing in a tournament on Prince Edward Island. After winning their game on Saturday morning, we made our way to Charlottetown to visit the capitol city. While doing the rounds of the art galleries, I discovered the magnificent art glass of Robert Held at Details, Past & Present Art Gallery. Upon entering the gallery, I was greeted by a collection of his vases and bowls. They brought me to a standstill and I was transfixed. The quality of the glass, the purity of the colors, almost as if these vessels were illuminated from within. I realized at that very moment that I was not leaving the premises without buying a piece. I also knew that it had just became an ''Objet de désire'' that I would want to paint very soon.

Robert Held is a California born artist, currently living in Vancouver BC. He has been a glass blower since 1968. He currently has nine assistants by his side working in one of the largest art glass studios in North America. He is represented by art galleries & museum shops throughout North America. His main influences are Louis C. Tiffany, Gustav Klimt and Claude Monet. I am a great admirer for all three. The most logical choice for me was to superimposed my new acquisition over a pocket-size Claude Monet art book from my own library. The color scheme was perfect and the book complimented the vase to perfection. This vase in part of his Meadow Line collection. The title of the painting is a play on word. It's a piece where art imitates life, life imitates art, and art imitates art.

Jean-Luc visiting Claude Monet's house in Giverny, France - 2006

In 2006, Jean-Luc had to do a presentation of a famous artist in front of his art class. Earlier that month as we were making our way through France and Switzerland on a family road trip.....it also turned into a field trip to acquire hands-on exposure to the world of French Impressionist painter Claude Monet. We visited a few museums that housed his artwork in Troyes, Lyon & Paris and visited his domain in Giverny. The pink house where his art studio was also located, the breathtaking flower gardens and the Japanese inspired arched bridge leading to the large water lily pond with the weeping willows.

Claude Monet is considered one of the founding members of the Impressionist movement. The term Impressionism was coined by art critic Louis Leroy in 1884 upon viewing Monet's painting, ''Impression, soleil levant'' during the first group show of this new artistic league.

Last month we had the last of the original windows on our house replaced. I requested windowsills for the second floor bedrooms during installation. The ledges have yet to be painted, so the natural pine board did create a warmer palette to set up the composition. I've done at least a dozen paintings featuring windows.....there will be more to come.

This painting is the second of three to be part of the invitational group show ''The Still Life'' to be held at the Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento California from October 2 to November 5, 2010.

-SOLD

Stamp collecting: A closer look at American Art

Acrylic on gessoed hardboard, #164

12 x 12'' - 2009

I have been collecting postage stamps since the age of 14. My main interest focused mainly on Canadian stamps. By the year 2000, I only had a few missing in order to have the whole Canadian catalogue. Since then, I've only been buying the odd stamp or First-Day cover. I've always considered stamps as miniature works of art. As they cover various subject matter like politics, history, biography, architecture, sports, art, botany, geography, folklore. I've learned a lot by just collecting them. After the French Impressionists and Canada's Group of Seven, it is now the turn to pay homage to American artists.

My muse was a US Postal 20-stamp sheet printed in 1998 entitled, Four Centuries of American Art. Here, the main focus is on Nighthawks by Edward Hopper and American Gothic by Grant Wood. Hopper is in my shortlist of all-time favorite artists. These two masterworks are among the most iconic art images of the 20th century. Other artists in this painting are Charles Sheeler, Franz Kline, George Caitlin, Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Edwin Church, George Caleb Bingham, Asher B. Durand and Joshua Johnson. Also on this sheet were: Mark Rothko, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, William Harnett, Rembrandt Peale and John James Audubon, which would have made equally beautiful additions to the painting. After running the Chicago Marathon on Halloween Day 1993, I had a chance to visit the Art Institute of Chicago the following day. The museum had been opened for exactly 100 years old + 1 day. Their art collection ranks among the finest in the world, and these two paintings are among the masterpieces.

What surprised me the most was that I was able to pull it together with paint, as the preliminary drawing lacked a lot of details. The metal around the magnifying glass is brass. There were a few oxidation stains, which remains.

Part of my solo show- Near and Far - October 16-30, 2009.

-SOLD

Amazing Spain

I've returned last week from the most incredible 35-day trip, where I spent two days in France, and the remainder in Spain. My main objective was to walk/backpack the 800km Camino Francés that starts in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port France and ends in Santiago the Compostella Spain. I had planned 29 walking days for this trek. Things went so well in fact that I was able to cover the distance in 28. Just incredible weather, sunshine almost every day, with only about 6 hours of rain while I was walking. The landscape was breathtaking, on certain days it felt as if I was walking through a picture Post Card. So much history has occurred on this route that dates more than a millennium.

The fraternity between pilgrims was like nothing I had ever experienced. At times, it felt like a meeting of the United Nations. I made so many great friends, made so many connections. The warmth of the local Spanish people was equally remarkable. I was lucky to have been spared any major injuries, only 3 tiny blisters. On the final walking day, my marathon running past came back to haunt me, so I opted to walk the marathon distance of 42,2km (well actually, it was 42,6km) , which made it even more significant for me. It was a journey of a life time, one for the ages.

Any travel would not be complete without taking advantage of the art along the way. After landing in Toulouse France, I was off to visit the city. My art stops included la Salle des Illustes at the Capitale (city hall). Here, gigantic mural-like impressionist paintings of Henri Martin and Paul Gervais adorn the walls. In the hall next door, a civil wedding was taking place, after which the bridal party had their picture taken in front of the Gervais masterpieces with a theme of love and marriage. I was then off to l'Hôtel d'Assézat, home of the Foundation Bemberg and it's excellent collection of paintings ranging from Toulouse-Lautrec, Manet, Monet, Degas, R, Duffy, Gauguin and especially Pierre Bonnard of which there was at least 3 dozen paintings. All housed in the city's most elegant Renaissance mansion built in 1555 by Nicholas Bachelier.

Along the Camino, the art could be found mostly in the hundreds of churches. Some ranging from the size of a small chapel to the most elaborate, sophisticated and largest Gothic church I have ever seen, the Cathedral of Santa Maria in Burgos, built over a 400 year period. The above photo is only a portion of the structure. It has to be seen, as no words can quite describe it. There is an enormous amount of wealth in these institutions. It is impossible not to marvel at the talented individuals who created the frescoes, paintings, wood and stone carvings, sculptures, architecture and overall craftsmanship found here.

I also had the opportunity to visit the very colorful Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y Leon. The MUSAC is the most important contemporary museum in the province of Leon. While in Santiago de Compostella, I visited the Centre Galego de Arte Contempranea, another large multi level space. Exhibitions in contemporary art galleries either cater to geniuses creating innovative conceptual art and installations and/or on the obscure, avant-garde, issues dealing with censorship, morality, underground culture, often explicit and graphic material, to push your buttons and at time to shock you. Well, these were no different even if they were on the route of the third most holiest pilgrimage in Christianity. Admission is free, meaning that these institutions are government funded. When Andy Warhol said, ''Art is what you can get away with''.......he was right!!!

But my real ''Coup de coeur'' happened in Madrid, where I spent 3 days sight-seeing before returning home. It happened at the Museo Sorolla. Joachin Sorolla (1863-1923) was a Spanish born impressionist painter who lived in Madrid. In 1932, his exquisite home and studio was transform into a museum following his death. I can't really recall seeing any of his work except in art books. As you pass through the street gate that leads you into a wonderful enchanted garden, the experience of stepping into his world has already begun. While entering the third of interconnected studios spaces where he painted, my jaw dropped and at that moment he went from being an obscure painter to one of my all-time favorite. In the larger room with a vaulted ceiling, paintings were hung salon style, his paint box and brushes were all there. A creative space that exuded a palpable energy. The museum continues on the ground level into the living and dining room of his residence and for another four rooms on the second floor. There was easily 80 paintings in all on display.

As luck would have it, my newly found admiration for Sorolla's work would reach a climax, as the Museo del Prado was hosting a major retrospective of his work until September 6. My admission ticket even had a pre-set viewing time, as the entire space was elbow to elbow. In the first room, the instant I saw the very fair-skin female nude seated on a marble base that can be seen on this link , I instantly became teary eyed. I knew I was in the presence of a genius. The way he paints light, the whites, his use of pastel colors, the contrasts, his compositions and subject matter really sets him apart. It's moments like these are when you can truly connect with art and see how it contribute to society and becomes an essential part of what it means to feel alive.

All of the figures studies set along the shoreline and marine paintings with the wind blowing in the white canvas sails that has light coming from behind, becoming illuminated in both pastel and the darker contrasting shadows being cast from the masts and the folds......well, they just took my breath away.

The Prado Museum has one of the finest collection of European art from the 12th to the early 19th century, featuring spanish master painters from the golden age - Goya, El Greco and Diego Velazquez, who's painting ''Las Meninas'' is considered by some as the most famous painting in the world. For the most part, the art found here are mostly Academic paintings. In all, I spent 4½ hours there.

After El Prado comes the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Spain's national museum of 20th century art. Several temporary exhibits included a compelling retrospective of Juan Munoz and the permanent collection that includes many Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, Guillermo Perez Villata, Sigfrido Martin Begué to name a few. Outside the Reina Sofia is the enormous sculptural work entitled ''Brushstroke'' by Roy Lichtenstein as shown above.

The masterpiece of Reina Sofia is Picasso's Guernica as shown above. The mural size painting had a whole room to itself, and was jam-packed with people. I only got to view the painting from a side angle.

The last of the Golden Triangle of Art is the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum that also includes the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. For it's overall collection, this one was my favorite. It houses a very impressive collection of old Flemish and Dutch masters, and an equally impressive list of international artists like John Singer Sargent, Marc Chagall, Childe Hassem, William Merritt Chase, Edward Hopper, Winslow Homer, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Piet Mondrian, Lucian Freud....just to name a few. And what could be better than a Richard Estes painting.....how about three. And of course a retrospective of the brilliant French impressionist painter, Henri Matisse.

Wild Irises, an homage to Van Gogh

Acrylic polymer emulsion on gessoed hardboard, 12 x 10",

painted - Jan. 7-20, 2007 , #115.

This is my first posting ever in the world of Blogging. I am currently preparing a solo show entitled After Hours, comprising of 25 new paintings to be held at the Handworks Gallery in Saint John, NB, Canada, from October 5-18, 2007. In the following weeks, I will be posting paintings to be included in this exhibition.

The first acrylic painting is entitled, "Wild Irises, an homage to Van Gogh". I purchased the book, The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh a few years back. It was originally published in two parts in the late 1920's. Self-portrait, 1889 - that graces it's cover is in the collection of the Orsay Museum in Paris. Last year during a two-week vacation of France and Switzerland, we visited that museum during our stop in Paris and I coincidentally wore a very appropriate shirt to coordinate with the masterpiece.

-SOLD