Into the City for a museum visit.

Ongoing work on "Preparing the Todah"

Yesterday I had an opportunity to leave the two oldest kids at home with Dad and venture into the city to visit some Art museums. I took the Ergo and strapped the baby on for our first big adventure together. The baby loved the Metro ride and quickly made friends with a kindly Vietnam vet who sat beside us. She kept on giving him huge smiles and reaching over to touch his jacket.

The first Museum I went to was the National Gallery of Art. I loved looking at all the religious art and found so much of it very touching. It was a perfect meditation for Holy Week. I wish I had taken more time to really reflect on some of these touching pieces.

Giovanni della Robbia - Pietà - Sculpture - Samuel H. Kress Collection - 1943.4.70

 They had an excellent special exhibit on the Pre-raphealites. I was very impressed with their work especially since I have not payed much attention to this era. I was interested in it years ago but had mostly forgotten about it. The colors in many of these paintings seemed to glow in comparison to the other paintings in the museum.

The Blind Girl by John Everett Mallais simply glowed from across the room. The colors were so vibrant and the details were amazing to look at close up.

Christ in the House of His Parents by John Everett Mallais

I paid particular attention to this painting because of the representation of the young life of Jesus.

 

Another area that I really likes was the room with paintings by John Singer Sargent (one of my favorite artists) and Whistler. I just love standing inches away from Sargent's paintings and seeing the brushstrokes. Brushwork was definitely my favorite thing to look at during the whole day. What a large variety of ways artists apply paint.

 

John Singer Sargent - Nonchaloir (Repose) - Painting - Gift of Curt H. Reisinger - 1948.16.1

 

James McNeill Whistler - Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl - Painting - Harris Whittemore Collection - 1943.6.2
 

At the National Portrait Gallery I was not as impressed simply because the focus was on the subject of the painting rather than on the technique and artistry of the painter. I was also much more tired, having already spent hours carrying the baby around. The courtyard was very nice and it was wonderful to be surrounded by warm air and beautiful trees and flowers.

 

 My favorite painting however was this painting of  Roosevelt

 

Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential "Hands" Portrait, 1945 by Douglas Chandor

Jesus and his stick

While I still have a long way to go on this painting, I am finally happy with the placement of Jesus in this painting, the sketchup model really helped me with placement and size and also with the background. I just like to know how the painting works spatially.
 My art teacher kept telling me to just make it work as a composition and to eyeball it but my architects brain really needed to understand the space and to design an exterior space in order to feel comfortable with the placement of things in the background.
I am placing an olive tree in the background for additional references to the happenings during the Easter triduum, and because lots of olive trees would have grown in that geographic area.

I love the way this little Jesus is poking with his stick. It is such a toddler boy thing to do. My son did some stick poking of his own today. These days sticks tend to be of the light saber variety as Star Wars is the current favorite pretend.
 He was helping my husband in the front yard. They were filling up our new planter beds with dirt. For a four year old he is very tough. He was maneuvering the 40lb bags of dirt around by himself. Not picking them up exactly but he could move them and hold them up. He helped Daddy get all 24 bags on to the cart at Home Depot.

I wonder how many times little Jesus helped Joseph and Mary? I just imagine him right beside Joseph in the wood shop learning how to smooth and cut the wood. How much did it slow Joseph down at first to have him there? Imagine how much help he must have been once he got older.
Every day I have to decide whether to slow down and let my kids help or if I just want to get it done as fast as possible.  I need to remember to let them "help" as much as possible while they still enjoy being there beside me.

Slow Progress

 Pumpkins and Mice was completed during a painting class at Reston Community Center. It was a good way to loosen up after my painting hiatus. I had not painted since my daughter was born in August. I loved teh vibrant color of the pumpkins and enjoyed working on something that required less rigorous representation than portraits.



I have been planning this painting of Mary for some time now. I took pictures of a friend modeling the pose last year and have been waiting till the time felt right to start the painting. I am including the series of photos to show how the painting has been developing. I have a lot still to do but am very excited with the progress that has been made. The painting is titled "Preparing the Todah Sacrifice".

I have also been continuing work on "Contemplating Bluegrass"

 A good deal of my creative energy during the last week was tied up in designing and making my sons 4th birthday cake. He requested angry birds and I did my best to deliver. The kids enjoyed helping to build and paint the pinata, and everyone enjoyed the cake. I did need to catch up on sleep after the party was all over.  Unfornunantly my youngest chose the next few days to get her first two teeth and some restless nights followed.