Artsy Hodgepodge

We have visited some art museums in our travels and a local one in Seattle when we lived on that side of the state. The piece above stood out to me on one of our visits. The description of this piece reads “One of the most penetrating portraitists of the seventeenth century, Phillipe de Champaigne assimilated his observations of real people into religious paintings giving them a down-to-earth quality. Here, the central focus is the aged face of Elizabeth, as she affectionately greets her younger cousin, the Virgin Mary. According to the Gospel of Luke, both women were pregnant–Elizabeth with John the Baptist and Mary with Jesus. For Christians, their meeting symbolized the transition from the Old Law to the New Law of Christianity.”

Thank you to Joyce for Hodgepodge Wednesday. Here are this weeks questions to ponder.

1. October 25th is International Artists Day…do you have a favorite artist? If so tell us who and why.

I enjoy Impressionists like Renoir or Monet.

2. Would you describe yourself as artistic? Elaborate.

No, and here is an example of my flop of a craft project…

Mine is the angry matryoshka on the far right. Everyone else had a cute result.

3. What’s a skill, task, hobby, or job you’ve done so often you now have it ‘down to a fine art’?

Setting a table…

4. How often do you dine out? Fast food, fine dining, or somewhere in between? Tell us about a less than stellar restaurant experience you’ve had recently (or not so recently if that’s easier).

We probably eat out once a week even though our choices are very limited here in Colville.

My less than stellar experiences are mostly my fault because I order the wrong item.

The latest less than stellar experience was not noticing that the waitress gave us the wrong bill and a week later when looking at the receipt I realized that error. We were suffering from jetlag and our brains were not up to par.

5. Do you celebrate Halloween? To what extent? Are there trick or treaters where you live?

We love trick or treaters but decor and celebrations are on the down low. Now that we live farther from the city and on a country road we do not get trick or treaters except for our grandchildren who dress up with their parents and come over for treats!

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Our larches have turned golden…

Enjoy the end of October y’all!

Celebration #1

We gathered in Colville with our local family and friends to celebrate Greg on his actual birthday.

Our kids made fish tacos and delicious salsas and guacamole to enjoy. We had bread pudding for dessert.

The ‘Grands’ enjoyed watching Gramps open his gifts.

Requests were sent out to friends and family to send a greeting to Greg and to send those greetings to our kids’ home so they could surprise him with a stack on his birthday. It worked and what a great stack of cards he received from siblings, nieces, nephews, friends and his own kids and grands.

A very special surprise gift from Canada arrived, too.

So thoughtful and generous. Thank you Terry and Lovella!

After we got home and were able to read each card I decided to display them so we could enjoy them all.

We loved the special artwork created by Addy and JJ.

Our sister-in-law, Kelly, is becoming quite the artist, too.

Several verses from the Bible were shared in the cards that Greg received from friends and family near and far.

Romans 15:13

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 41:10

fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Funny cards and serious cards were all appreciated!

Isaiah 40:31

but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

Jeremiah 17:7-8

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
    whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
    that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
    for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
    for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

This next card made both of us laugh out loud!

It was quite a wonderful gift to receive all of these cards and to read the special greetings and memories in each of them. If any of you who sent cards are reading this post, thank you so much for taking time to write and send Greg these encouraging greetings!

We will celebrate with our ‘Coast Kids’ in Ireland!

Trinity College ~ University of Oxford

You can read about the history of Trinity College by clicking here. After our walking tour of Oxford on our 6th day in England Dear and I enjoyed some lunch and then walked about on our own. We visited two more of the University of Oxford Colleges, Trinity and Magdalen. We had to pay a small entrance fee to walk about these colleges.

The Chapel was consecrated in 1694 and was hailed by contemporaries as the most magnificent Chapel in the University. Its dynamic integration of architecture, sculpture and painting is unrivalled amongst surviving ecclesiastical interiors in England.

Deposition of Christ ~ (copy after Andrea del Sarto) by Gaetano Cannicci, 1870.

Back here in the “States” work did not proceed as planned on Tuesday. One thing we’ve learned is that there are too many different laborers that are required in a bathroom renovation. You have your plumber, your tiler, your drywall installer, the taper, the sealer, the electrician. We can’t say that the skill level for all these workers has been to our standards. We were pleased with the plumber. Work halted on Tuesday since the prep work for the tile man was not completed as needed. I really am hoping we are real pleased with the tile man. The upside to the delay today was that I was able to go out and take care of some errands that needed to be done.

Today, hopefully the tile will be installed with no glitches. I better go run and take some more before photos. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Our Second Adventure…

…on Katie’s birthday was a trip to the Seattle Center where the Space Needle happens to be and other attractions as well.

Our reason for braving the holiday crowds was to see Chihuly Garden and Glass. It was worth weaving about “all the humanity” to enjoy this extraordinary exhibit.

We first saw this wall of blankets that gave Chihuly inspiration for some of his creations.

This amazing piece was in the Sea inspired room.

It was impossible for me to get the full ceiling but I enjoyed capturing some sections of the ceiling.

This was a great room. “Chihuly has said that memories of his mother’s garden serve as inspiration for these “gardens of glass.” Of course I thought of our bloggy friend Pat at Mille Fiori.

I would like to come back on a day when it’s not raining to get some clearer shots of the needle above this beautiful glass flower conservatory.

We decided to go out to the glass outdoor garden in the rain. I was happy to get several shots without getting my lens wet.

We enjoyed our time here and we hurried in the rain to the parking garage to drive to our third adventure which was a stop at Massage Envy to get our hour relaxation massage along with a sugar foot scrub. Bliss!

I’m joining in with Mary for her Mosaic Monday Meme. If you click over you will see some beautiful images in Mosaic form.

Tick, tick, tick …2013 is winding down. What are your New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day plans? I’ll admit we don’t have any. Maybe I’ll come up with some inspiration on Monday…

Goodbye to Summer…

…and a look back at one more stop off the road from the Washington Coast.

We stopped at the Willapa Interpretive Art Trail…

The Willapa Interpretive Art Trail was created to commemorate the restoration of a small stream near Refuge Headquarters. The art trail is a one quarter mile curving boardwalk.

Artwork located along the boardwalk helps to tell the stories of the stream and the many species who live there.

Students from the University of Washington Public Arts Program designed, constructed, and installed the artwork for the trail under the direction of professors John Young, Ian Robertson, and Jim Nicholls.

From a distance we thought this little guy was real and you should have seen us approach it very very carefully so we wouldn’t scare it away.

We got closer and closer and it didn’t move…

When we got this close we realized it was part of the artwork along the trail. We laughed till we cried about how careful we were not to scare this fake frog!

These feather sculptures didn’t trick us.

These salmon sculptures in the trees didn’t fool us either.

This dragon fly table was designed by UW Art student Gary Carpenter. The quote on the table is from a poem by e.e. Cummings ~ …the world is mud luscious and puddle wonderful.

The moss on the trees was so soft…

It was a treat to stretch our legs here on the way home from the coast.

Tomorrow I head South for some more adventures. I’ll be back in the Fall y’all! I had to say that because I’m watching Paula on the food channel while I’m preparing this post. See you next week.

Washington National Cathedral ~ Some Details…

The Cathedral, officially the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, is amazing and has so many wonderful architectural details.

A crucifixion scene is high overhead on the rood beam (“rood” is an old word meaning cross or crucifix).

The sculpture on the Canterbury Pulpit depicts people and scenes relating to the translation of the Bible into English. Stones for the pulpit came from Canterbury Cathedral in England.

At the east end of the Cathedral nave is the HIGH ALTAR. One hundred and ten figures of men and women exemplifying the highest ideals of Christianity surround the central figure of Christ in Majesty, completing the iconographic story with the redemption of humankind through Jesus Christ.

There were several beautiful ornate iron gates throughout the Cathedral.

16th-Century tapestries tell the story of David and Goliath. There were several of these tapestries in St. Mary’s Chapel.

In the lower level (crypt) of the Cathedral are several chapels with new Testament imagery.

I’m pretty sure this is from the Bethlehem Chapel. The Cathedral’s foundation stone was placed on this site under what later became the altar of the Bethlehem Chapel. In 1912 this became the first part of the Cathedral to be completed, and a service has been held here every day since.

This is from the Chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea. The mural tells the story of Jesus’ entombment following the crucifixion. This chapel and the Resurrection Chapel are primarily built in the Romanesque (or Norman) style of architecture featuring rounded arches and a heavier “feel” than the Gothic architecture. The use of this style here imitates the medieval custom of building a Gothic Cathedral over the crypt of an earlier, Romanesque one.

The Resurrection Chapel is decorated with colorful mosaics, portraying the appearances of Jesus after his resurrection.

Behind this iron gate is Helen Keller’s tomb

The tiny chapel of the Good Shepherd

While in the Crypt Dear and I were on a quest to find a special little nook. Several years ago we purchased a beautiful painting by our friend Patty Forte Linna that hangs in our living room. This next photo is our painting by Patty.

Patty was inspired to paint this from her visit to the Washington National Cathedral and seeing this special little area in the Crypt. Dear spotted the area and pulled me aside to show me. This next photo was Patty’s inspiration.

Here they are side by side…

If you ever get the chance to visit Washington D.C. do not miss this beautiful Cathedral.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Mosaic Monday ~ Painters With Issues!

After church today we headed to the Bothell Art Festival being held on the grounds of Cascadia College/University of Washington Bothell Campus. We were hoping to see one of our favorite contemporary artists Patty Forte Linna. Here she is with her friend and fellow artist Pepper Peterson. Can you guess what color is Pepper’s favorite? Hint…look at her shoes, top and hair! Both of these gals are so full of energy. They are starting a blog called Painters With Issues. You can see some of Patty’s art at her website here. If you click on the link the first photo you’ll see is my daughter’s new favorite. Patty painted it from a photograph of her mother and father as a gift for their 63rd wedding anniversary. Go ahead and click, you’ll be happy you did.

This is the Patty Forte Linna painting we own. It’s beautifully framed and hanging in a prominent spot in my living room.

After our walk through the booths we strolled around the campus and to the wetland area adjacent to campus. Such a lovely setting. (The top right photo in the mosaic is a tree/wood sculpture)

To see more mosaics please visit Mary at Little Red House.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Mosaic Blue Monday ~ Jury Duty & 5K

For Mosaic Monday please visit Mary at The Little Red House. Her photography is always stunning. I took these photos of the beautiful Dogwood and Wisteria during a 5K walk I participated in on Saturday morning. I always have time to stop and smell the roses!! I just had to jog to catch up with my walking buddies. I am determined to plant a Dogwood, Wisteria and lilac in my yard!!

For Blue Monday you need to visit Sally at Smiling Sally. She’s a very gracious hostess! These sculptures were on the courthouse where I was on Jury Duty last week. I never had to sit on a jury but at least I got some photo time in! These are a great assortment of Northwest wildlife!

Have a great Monday and start to your new week!

Yard Art ~ Oink!

We were in La Conner, Washington last weekend. It’s an eclectic little town with lots of artsy flavor. As we drove around all I had to do was yell “YARD ART” and Dear would slam on the brakes and position the car so I could get a good shot. What a guy!

This was some yard art in major proportions…

Now go on over and visit Mary at Work of the Poet and see what junk fine art people are putting their yards.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Window Views ~ Getty Villa

The Teach…Mary started this new great meme last week called Window Views. Click over to her new blog called Window Views to see the rules to participate. Easy rules, easy participation…

Last Spring I went to The Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades with two new bloggy friends. I was intrigued by the view of this beautiful sculpture of this woman in a gallery opposite the room I was in. I zoomed in to get a closer view through the window…

Then when I finally made my way to the room she was housed in, photos weren’t allowed. Oops!

For more Window Views visit Mary here.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Art