A PLACE TO STOP, THINK AND WONDER, PART III

The Denial of St. Peter, Gerard Seghers (1591-1651)

Museums are such wonderful places.  I've written about them before.  So many people agree.  School groups, singles, parents and children all wandering about looking.  A place to stop, think and wonder.  But I hadn't paid enough attention to the museums close to home.  The North Carolina Museum of Art is a mere 1/2 hour drive away.  Because my brother is an artist we decided to go there when he came to visit.  What an enriching experience! Look at the light in this beautiful painting, how it shines on the faces, how St. Peter is illuminated. Of course I wanted to read about how this was achieved.  I learned that the luminosity and plasticity of the oils gave new color and realism to the Renaissance paintings. Before that frescoes had been painted with tempera--somewhat like the chalk paints we use for furniture today.   

The Museum was also having a Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) show, juxtaposing her work with younger artists influenced by her.  She is of course known best for her outsize flowers. She said about flowers, 

Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. 
We haven't time and it takes time--
like to have a friend. 

Isn't that a wonderful comparison, that taking time to see something as fragile and wondrous as a flower is like taking time for friendship?  Because I am now deep into my Mindfulness and Meditation course this resonates with me.  Seeing, paying attention whether to our friends or to nature.  Being aware, being present.

O'Keeffe didn't only paint nature, but I didn't know that before.  I'm an art novice.  This is one of her early portraits, Woman with Apron (1918), described as "whirling washes of saturated color."
 

Woman with Apron, O'Keeffe, 1918

This next one too is of pure saturated color and was maybe my favorite of hers in the exhibit.  It seems like the expression of an emotion.  I could look at it everyday. Do you like this sort of painting?  So different from her famous flowers.  

Evening Star No. II, O'Keeffe, 1917

But what I really loved was being introduced to the paintings of Anna Valdez (b. 1985).  Valdez, I learned, paints natural forms along side domestic objects.  Like O'Keeffe, her work is characterized by rigorous observation.  I love the floral forms and decorative patterning.  They're almost like illustrations. Yet every inch of the canvas is filled with color.  Different from the simple swaths of color in the O'Keeffe paintings.  What do you think?  Would you like to look at something like this when you woke in the morning?  Or came home from work?  Would it cheer you, make you happy?  Intrigue you?  I think it would me.  

Deer Skull with Blue Vase, Valdez, 2017

Study-ing, Valdez, 2015

Sometimes it seems like a museum won't provide enough entertainment or stimulation.  We're so used to speed and instant gratification.  But a museum is always worth a visit.  We look beyond ourselves into the creative minds of others.  I'd like to do this more.