Well, I’m back from our trip to our Nation’s Capital, and what a super week it was. I haven’t been there for at least 15 years and we did all the obvious things like tour the White House, Congress/Senate, Supreme Court, and Library of Congress. And all the memorials. My horse-radar perked up at the Civil War Memorial which had gorgeous bronzes:


I took photos of this very nice equestrian U.S. Grant statue, and a close-up of the horses in another sculpture. My new sculpture will have a tucked head (though not this much) so I am collecting shots of heads like this for reference!

The highlight of the trip was two FABULOUS exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art. They had an incredible J.M. W. TURNER exhibition; I couldn’t believe our luck that it opened the week we got there. I am a huge fan of Turner’s work and to see such a large anount of his top work in one place was amazing. We went to the Tate in London last November specifically to see their Turner collection, and I was very disappointed in what was there but didn’t really understand why; we almost had the feeling we were missing something. Now I wonder if this exhibition was already touring because many of the pieces were from the Tate!! I was especially excited to see his watercolor of Tintern Abbey; my all-time favorite especially because the Tintern Abbey bookstore is where I first discovered it and learned about Turner’s work.

The NGA also had an EDWARD HOPPER exhibition, which was also tremendous. I was so excited to see “Night Hawks” in person. I loved all his moody paintings of New York and New England. Now whenever I see a building with strong side-light, I am going to think, “I’m seeing a Hopper moment”. There is just nothing like seeing paintings in person; printed reproductions just don’t have the same power especially in the colors and being able to really look at them both up close and able to step away from it. We were just in heaven. The NGA also has several Vermeers and awesome Canalettos which were a pleasure to see. My first and only love in paintings is realism and landscapes, so I was thrilled to add some great treasures to my “seen” list last week! Oh, and I learned that I love Winslow Homer, too!! I had never really paid attention to his work before.

Here is a link to the NGA’s exhibitions page with links to these 2 exhibitions if you want to look.

I am very glad to be home however, because it was unseasonably hot in DC last week, and the humidity was almost overpowering. We didn’t rent a car and walked, rode the Metro, or bicycled everywhere, and we had to keep dipping into airconditioned places just to get relief.

ANYway, back to the workbench now!
Here is a photo of the palomino Caprice, which was finished right before I left. His happy new owner is Julia Harmon of North Carolina. I sure didn’t want to send him away, Caprice looks simply spendid in palomino!

I have to finish up the War Chant in the next 2 weeks, and then I will be spending more time on sculpture projects in addition to several chinas I will be glazing. OH, and the Mountains got a lovely dusting of snow this week, can snowboarding season be far behind??