Crystal Bridges = Great Museum

This metal tree sculpture, "Yield" by Roxy Paine, is the first work of art you see after a drive through the woods and down into the valley. You can't drive by it. You have to drive to it. You might think that a museum built of cement and copper would be cold but it is as magnificent as the Getty, only surrounded by nature not a city.

To enter you don't just open a door, you stroll through the woods, down a short trail and into a courtyard before you get to the main doors. The gift shop is separate from the rest of the museum. This is a view looking down into the courtyard and across the tops of the buildings. 

Like the Getty the mass plantings will be fabulous. They have used all native materials and with winter coming on they aren't as spectacular as they will be in Spring. 

Once inside the galleries hold great treasures of American Art. The easy thing would have been to buy an example of noted American artists and call it good but no, Ms Walton has chosen well. Nearly all the paintings in the collection are major examples of the artist work. You can travel through time from Peale through Moran and Cassatt, Homer,Sargent, Bellows, Benton, Rockwell, Nevelson, Rauschenberg and tons more in between. 

Worn out after half the galleries we stopped for lunch. Not only is the cafe area spectacular with the glass walls, wood beams with skylights and views of the pond and other galleries, but the food is great, creative and not over priced.  

The cost numbers are spectacular as well. It is said that the building alone cost 1.3Billion. The Walmart Foundation has created an endowment of over 800 million for art purchases. They do have some gaps. Nothing from Taos School and light on the impressionists. They also have a series of trails dotted with sculpture that aren't yet complete with sculpture by Paul Manship and Dan Ostermiller among others. There is lots of room for more great sculpture. 


If you can't get there visit the web site at www.crystalbridges.org
Plan to visit, it is worth the drive. Besides there are several other interesting museums in the Bentonville AR area including the original 5&10 where Walmart began. 

Just because I wander doesn't mean I'm lost!

This beautiful landscape is on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. This was the last stop on our last wandering. Beautiful country!

We began our journey by following the North Georgia Arts Tour. We drove up US 23 and began our trip in Dillard, GA then to Clayton, Lakemont and Tallulah Falls and then to Toccoa all small towns in north Georgia. They do this twice a year and it is a great time to see all the galleries who all have working artists there. We saw wood working, painters and even basket makers using Kudzu . We had lunch at the Dillard House. Like most things Southern this is still in the family and began the tradition in 1820 as farmers and providers of traditional Southern hospitality.

The have a lodge and very famous restaurant where you eat family style. The term "groaning board" covers the event. They bring everything to the table and you serve yourself what you want. The cheerful waitress says, "Now if you want more you just holler."
I think this photo of my husband Tom and the lunch spread will let you see why this place if famous.

Yes, all this food was just for the two of us. No, we didn't eat it all but made a good dent.



Tallulah Falls was an interesting stop. The Tallulah Falls School, which still operates today as a private school, was begun by Mary Ann Lipscomb a member of the Georgia Women's Federation Club. It was originally founded to provide the mountain children with education since there was no school in the area. The organization still operates the school, a gift shop and now a beautiful hotel called The Lodge at Tallulah Falls. It is the best lodging in this area, brand new and beautifully decorated by the Women's Federation.

Our next stop was in Greenville, South Carolina. What a wonderful town, filled with art and an beautiful downtown, arts district and river walk area. Our first visit was the Greenville County Museum of Art. They currently have a great show called Art & Artists of South Carolina which included both historic and contemporary art. The highlight for me, however, was the collection of Andrew Wyeth. They have a great body of his work and it was delightful to see them up close and in such a wonderful museum. The entire town was a surprise and beautiful. Their river walk area (they have a real river and water fall running through the city) has been developed into a charming area with lots of restaurants, loft housing, art galleries and boutique shops. We strolled both sides of the river and enjoyed watching the ducks and the kids enjoy the water. This is a view of the pedestrian suspension bridge over the river.


Then on to Salisbury, North Carolina to visit our artist friends Whitney Peckman and Syed Ahmad. They and their neighbors have restored an historic building in downtown which they call the East Square Artworks. The town of Salisbury is making great efforts to preserve and protect the historic buildings and homes in the community by creating various historic districts. This includes the downtown where Whitney and Syed have converted an old bakery to galleries, work space and loft housing. Salisbury has a historic preservation commission that even has buildings for sale. It is a great place for art and artists and a growing beautiful community.

Whitney and Syed fed us, entertained us and gave us a great tour of the area including the Waterworks Visual Art Center where Whitney currently has a show of her beautiful paintings.

They will also exhibit their work at the 20th annual Celebration of Fine Art and we will see them there in Scottsdale Arizona during the winter.


After Salisbury we drove to Asheville, North Carolina. Asheville is filled with galleries and artist colonies. This beautiful mountain setting provides a home to many artists in various
media. The tradition of crafts is very strong in this part of the country and many of these artists have taken the craft to fine art. One of the places that you must stop is the Southern Highlands Craft Guild shop on the Blue Ridge Parkway where they also have a Folk Art Center.

We shopped and enjoyed the art and crafts and watched an artist making psalteries (pronounced without the P). It is a musical instrument that has a lovely lyrical tone. I almost bought one just for the sound. The artist, Rick Long, showed me how to play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star " and allowed anyone could play a psalterie. It looks easy and sound great but I still am not sure I could get past the first song.



There are simply too many galleries in Asheville to record them all. It is like a multi day feast for art addicts. I will mention one special gallery and a couple of fabulous artists. There are two very famous places in Asheville. One is the Biltmore Estates and the other is the Grove Park Inn.

Next to the Grove Park Inn is the Grovewood Gallery a gallery of fine art crafts, sculpture, furniture and more. Among the art displayed their was a wonderful desk. It is called an Aaron Burr desk and was made by artist Barry Tribble. When closed the desk will look like a table with a beautifully inlaid top. When open half the top folds back and the sides open to reveal a desk with drawers and a chair! The inlaid wood veneers contain many colors and textures which have been influenced by the ancient art of marquetry.



The second gallery was the Haen Gallery where the owner chatted with us and told us all about the artist who's paintings had me spell bound. His name is Lynn Boggess. He is a plein air landscape painter who lives in West Virginia. His paintings are amazing. He has a special portable studio that he hauls with him into the wilds so he can paint in any weather. It is shown on his web site (click the link on his name) and it is amazing. The spontaneity shows in all his work, even the biggest canvases which he does right on the spot, no studio work for this guy. He is brilliant.

It was a fabulous trip filled with art and covering 3 states. You can do that in the South in a matter of hours. Asheville is only about 4 hours away from us. I am sure we will be going back again.

The Customer Service Rant for the month:
You know from reading my blog that I am adamant about customer service in galleries and this trip we had mostly great experiences with people talking to us about the art and artists. There was only one really startling bad moment. We were in in an Asheville gallery and I was studying a huge painting ($10,000 price tag) that had all sorts of hidden detail. The sales gal came from behind me and said, "Excuse me would you move please we (an artist and herself) need to see these frame choices." She then plops a small painting with different frame corners on the couch in front of this big painting and proceeds to discuss the frame choices with this guy, ignoring me completely. Amazing!

On The Trail Of Great Art

Where ever you go in the world you find art and artists. It always gives me a feeling of reassurance that there is something special about the place if I find artists there working. The photo above was taken in Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. She was sketching the beams in the ceiling with the light poring through. Tucked in a corner so as not to be trampled by the crowds. I make it a rule to look and see what the artist is capturing then look up or out to try and see what they see. It is truly like watching magic.

We just returned from a river cruise up the Seine river from LeHavre to Paris. That is the area where the great French artists lived and worked. Sure, they went to Paris for shows and business and some even lived there for some time but this area along the banks of the Seine was the beauty they captured that still inspires us today.

The Seine holds some of the countries major industries and factories today but is still sprinkled with picturesque villages, mostly unchanged, since they were painted by the Impressionists. They often hung out in a sea side village called Honfleur. Here they painted the ocean and boat scenes. This city remains filled with traditional architecture and a lovely harbor lined with restaurants.


Perhaps the most memorable and breathtaking place was Monet's home and gardens at Giverny. Monet moved out of Paris and into this huge home in Giverny where he lived from 1883 until 1926 at his death. His home and gardens is now a museum and has been restored and maintained by the Monet Foundation. The gardens are planted so that each season is both different and spectacular. Colors and textures abound and they have followed Monet's original plan for his garden. He created the lily pond that was such a frequent subject. When you stand in the garden and picture his work you can see what he saw and place yourself in the setting where his paintings were created. He could stay on his porch and watch the endless parade of seasons. His home is open and you can see all the wonderful Japanese wood block prints and engravings that so inspired him. Here are a few photos of the house and gardens to give you the idea.

I took close to 500 photos but these should wet your appetite for a visit. Once we hit Paris the next highlights were a visit to the Musee de Orsey, always an inspiration, and the Rodan Museum. Rodan was not only a fabulous sculptor but the museum shows his paintings and ceramics as well. I always enjoy seeing the experiments of great artists, how they reach out and explore with no fear of failure, just pure adventure to see how it works and what happens.
We skipped the massive lines and crowds of the Louvre and instead stuck to Rodan. Here are a couple of photos of this "don't miss" Rodan Museum.





















This was Rodan's home and studio. He is buried under his sculpture of the Thinker in the courtyard. Consider visiting this area instead of zooming up the Eiffel Tower. You will have much richer memories.