7 Quick Takes Friday - fine arts week 1

--- 1 ---

I've been exploring the fine arts scene of Springfield (Missouri) this past week, and it has led me to make some uncharacteristic purchases. I'm really glad I've made them! Turns out, for one thing, I really like Opera! (Yeah, I'm as surprised as you are.) Here are the purchases I made: 

--- 2 ---

I also bought some oil pastels and experimented with some
art of my own! I have only ever drawn with graphite and charcoal, so this was
my first attempt at color or anything like paint. I really enjoyed it!

"Wisdom"

"Deep Calls Out to Deep"

--- 3 ---

My plan was to visit a different local art gallery (or other fine art exhibition) each day this
week, but I only got to three. This is not because I didn’t try to get to others!
Some don’t open until later in the day…and the weather was crazy…and yeah, I
know, excuses, excuses. I already blogged about the opera and first gallery visit. The
following day I went to the Springfield Art Museum. I thought it had decent repertoire, and was especially impressed that there was a wing devoted to Asian (Chinese and Japanese) art. I was not extremely impressed with the Director's Choice exhibit. There was one piece - something about "darkness" - that consisted of some kind of greyish-brown solid painted canvas. Really? I hope the place didn't go broke buying that. These were my favorite three pieces: 

"Cartoon Study for Painting"

20th c. Drawing and Watercolor

Louis Freund
"Elusive Reality"

1984 Oil on Canvas

Barbara Dixon Drewa

(The artist recreated Rogier van der Weyden's "Portrait of a Lady"

as if it were a page ripped out of a catlogue or textbook.)
"Patternity"

2000 Watercolor on Paper

Jerry Bowman


Also on my favorites list was a sculpture of the one and only John Wayne. :)

 
--- 4 ---

Later the same day I had lunch with a friend, but before
lunch we stopped by the “Kiss My Gas” Scooter store. Not only did they have a
gorgeous 1960-something Vespa; the walls were lined with paintings! The
moral seems to be that art creeps up on us from corners where we least expect
it! 

 

 

(hyuck hyuck - this was their company's shirt from
a 5k benefitting breast cancer research.)

 

--- 5 ---

Yeah…so…I’m a slightly obsessed sucker for trees. I just love them;
always have. Here are a couple interesting snapshots of trees I got this week: 

This moss-covered beaut' stands outside my apartment
building - I often park in front of it.

 

And THIS?! We-he-hell...let's just say...when you visit your local
art museum and behold all the majestic paintings that line the
proud corridors...I'm that girl at the end of the hallway taking pictures of
TREES through the glass of the back exit. Yeah. That's me.

--- 6 ---

In other news, I've been gearing up for the April A to Z Blogging Challenge, and so far I have
prewritten three and a half posts (in accordance with my theological theme).
Also, I’ve gained 8 new followers since signing up and beginning mutual
visiting of others’ blogs that are on the list. This has been a good thing for
me so far. It has got me writing on a regular basis. Also, participating in 7QT
has got me doing more things to inspire weekly thematic posts (such as
exploring the fine arts available in my city). This is good – things that get
me out of my head and into the real world have been sporadic at times….

--- 7 ---

And finally, for your viewing pleasure, here is my "song of the week" - the song I've played on repeat for the last several days, because that is the annoying-to-others way in which I listen to music:

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!