The Farnsworth Museum, Rockland Maine

I took a ride to Rockland, Maine to see the Frank Benson exhibit at the Farnsworth Museum which is also the home of the art of the Wyeth's. 

When I think of Benson, I think of women in white dresses painted against the backdrop of the Island meadows of Maine. These famous works are luminous in carved and gilded frames that I so wanted to photograph, but it's not allowed. 

The real surprise was that Benson was painter and printmaker of shore birds of all kinds. Eagles, ducks, gulls. Having recently painted gulls, with plans to expound upon the bird theme, I was treated, in a short film, to a lesson of him etching plates of copper and limestone and pulling prints. His composition is impeccable.

There is also a Jamie Wyeth and Rockwell Kent show of paintings of Monhegan Island. Jamie's birds carry meanings that are metaphorically representational of human foibles such as the seven deadly sins. Kent's paintings are strong land and seascapes of the island on which he lived and worked.

The Museum itself is a gift from the Farnsworth family through daughter Lucy and is delightful.

I was there for almost 4 hours and it was exhilarating!

Connie Hayes Interior

I've finally settled in here in Naples and today I found a set of acrylics that I have never used. I must admit that sometimes I'm at a loss as to what I should paint. I worry that I look too much like the painters I admire and it holds me back. It shouldn't. I know it's all been done and that we all bring our own view to our subjects. I decided to use the acrylics and was pleasantly surprised at how well I was able to 'feel' them. They also seem different from when I used them in Art School which was forever ago and they don't seem to change value as much as I remembered. I chose to copy a beautiful interior scene painted by the incomparable Connie Hayes, author of "Borrowed Views". What fun! 

Although I try to eschew political comments on my blog, today is Martin Luther King day and I've watched some wonderful biographical and Historical programs about him. I lived through the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and  Medgar Evers. People who had the courage of their convictions. I was young and I felt the grief. The shootings in Tucson mirror those bewildering events. The lone gunman looking for notoriety, strikes again. Changing all of our lives.