Just About a New Month

Just about a new month. I can't believe April has come and gone in such a blink of the eye.

I made this week's calendar journal page using a postcard I picked up at the Museum of Fine Arts last week and some words from a travel brochure that came in the mail.

Vacation is over and its back to work in the morning. But this is my last week as I have surgery  coming up on the 9th.

Kind of weird to think about school ending so early for me. Usually at this time I still have 6-7 weeks left of the year.

I feel like I spent most of my vacation doing chores. But I'm glad to get so many of the spring projects finished. 

But I was happy to make it to the Matisse exhibit at the MFA art museum in Boston. Here's a few views from this exhibit.

The theme if the exhibit was to show some of the artifacts Matisse included in his work, and then show the art that included that piece.

For example, this is a screen that Matisse had in his studio.

I thought the carpet was so well painted I took a close up.

And these chocolate pots.

More of his painting up close.  I found that fascinating.

I love how his paint work wasn't perfect yet he still painted these fantastic pieces.

Full of color. 

 He had some African figures that he also used.

 And this statue.

It was an interesting exhibit because you showed so much about his inspirations.

Every time I look at this piece I see more than before. They did have some of his vases on display, but I didn't photograph any. 

They also had pieces from his entire career. Including the cut outs he made at the end of his life when painting was too difficult.

 The close up details were really fascinating to me again.

And this is only a little bit of the exhibit. If your interested I'll show you some more another day.

Plus there's still the Botticelli's and one of my favorite childhood authors. 

And now its May (or just about) with some new adventures.

Hope yours will be a good one.

Signs of Spring

 The cherry blossoms are starting to bloom here in New Hampshire..

And my daffodils are out.

 And there's still a few crocuses left too.

Today felt like summer here. It was warm and humid. Out came the shorts. :)

 So here's this weeks spread in my calendar journal . 

 Here's a cropped view of just the left side. Its my last entry for Hazel's great challenge at Art Journal Journey this month. The theme is Magical Mystery Tour, and when I think about butterflies, it certainly is magical how the caterpillar turns into a gorgeous butterfly. And to me, the biologist, it is such a mystery why they go through such physical changes from the caterpillar to the butterfly. 

It been a great challenge Hazel. Thanks for fun.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

A Little Bit of Time with The Masters

Hi everyone. Its another cloudy and showery Thursday here in my part of the world. 

I spent my day doing a lot of art yesterday, but nothing got photographed or scanned in, so today I have a few more pieces from the Masters.  These are some more photos I took at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, which I visited on Tuesday. I'm still working my way through the Matisse photos I took, and I did visit the Botticelli exhibit too. That exhibit was smaller than the Matisse one, but both were quite crowded. Actually the museum was very busy for a Tuesday afternoon, and perhaps it was because of the special exhibits, or maybe it was the rain, but whatever the reason it was good to see so many people there.

The MFA is a fairly large museum, and my husband (who was with me) isn't really an art guy, but he was a good sport. So other than the special exhibits we visited,  I didn't walk through a whole lot of the permanent collection. I did take a little stroll through some of the Impressionist exhibit particularly because I wanted to see the Van Gogh's. But here's a few of the popular artists that you've probably heard of that were in the same exhibit.

A couple of Cezanne's.

And a few Gauguin's.

They had several Degas pieces, but here is the only one I took a snapshot of.

This lady in the red coat happened to be walking about the same direction and speed as me.

And a Munch.

A Renoir. 

And lots of Monet's. I wonder with all the Monet art that is out there, what was the total number of pieces he actually created during his lifetime. Of course I look at how much I have created, and art is not my job, and I bet he made a whole lot. 

So here's some Monet.

 I like this Japanese inspired piece because its very different than I expect Monet to be.

 And there must be water lilies.

 But how can you not love Monet?

And finally today I have this Van Rysselberghe for you. I'm not really familiar with this artist, but I do the the light and the warm summery feel of this piece.

Off to an early appointment today. Hope your day is a good one.

Good News

Yup, Tuesday's trip down to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston was a success! My husband was cleared for kidney transplant surgery! 😀

He said when he walked back out into the waiting room and gave me the thumbs up, he could see the relief sweep across my face.

It was still early at this point, and we were in the city, and I really wanted to go see the Henri Matisse exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, and the hubby was in a good mood, so we went over  to the T station (The T is the Boston subway system), and headed over to the museum for a few hours.

The Matisse exhibit was wonderful, and I have photos to show you another day once I go through them. It was actually  a banner day at the museum because there were a couple of other amazing exhibits to see also.

More on those another day also. 

But while the hubby sat in a comfy chair and texted with our daughter, I disappeared for a little bit and went up to see the 4 Van Gogh paintings that the museum owns. I also got to see a couple of Gaugin's, Monet's and Renoir's. And a few other paintings too.

After just reading the book about Van Gogh's Ear (by Bernadette Murphy), I was curious to see in real life 2 of the paintings that she included in the book's color plates. 

(And Jeanie if you get around to reading this, I did see the Secrets of the Dead episode on PBS about this woman and how she found the info to describe what actually happened. I appreciate you mentioning it.:)

The people in these portraits were described in the book as his friends in Arles, France.

 This is the postman, Joseph Roulin.

 Plus there were 2 other Van Gogh's which I was not familiar with.

It was cool to see the stylistic differences between different painters of that era and those of Matisse.

It was a good day, for sure.

I hope you had a good day too, and you have a good day today too. (Or tomorrow, if you re reading this in the evening/night.)

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

T Stands for Sunshine and Spring

Happy T day everyone.  It is already Tuesday again. Our sunshine has disappeared and the rain is coming, but the last couple of days have been just gorgeous.

 Here's a couple of shots from my Monday morning walk.

And some shots from a Sunday evening drive.

 Ice out on the the big lake near my home was last week. That means its almost boating season. :)

I've spent the last 3 days doing yard work.  Monday's project was spreading back mulch.

Monday night I was ready to go to bed early! :)

I was pretty worn out Sunday evening too after some outside work. The hubby had gone off during the day to do his favorite spring chore, uncovering his boat which he stores up at his mother's house. When he got home we decided to go get some ice cream, but then decided we were so hungry we should stop and have dinner instead.

They make the BEST brick oven pizzas.

I washed mine down with a 603 Winnie amber ale.

I like how it was served in a Pats glass.

The hubby had a rum punch.

I noticed this photo gave his face a weird coloring. Not sure what that was all about, but the punch was that orange red color.

Then we were naughty and stopped for an ice cream.

I worked so hard today I certainly burned off dinner for sure.
And it was YUMMY! :)

So stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to see what the T gang has been up to. And maybe you'd even like to join in the T day fun. All you need is a drink photo.

So I might be a little late getting to some of your blogs since the hubby has one more pre-surgery test in Boston. Keep your fingers the results are good news. 

And have a happy T day every one.