New York State (Day Three) - Bethel, NY (Woodstock Music & Arts Fair) - Vassar College - SUNY at New Platz - Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT

Thursday, July 16, 2015 - starting at the Howard Johnson in Binghamton, NY, down to Bethel, NY (Woodstock Music & Arts Fair), over to The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY), back to the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY at New Platz, NY, then down to 84 and east to the Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT, then HOME!!!:

455 miles; 8 hours 20 minutes.

It actually didn't occur to me to visit Bethel, NY until I was heading east towards 84 (well, that and the fact that I was listening to Woodstock Two [2 cds] this morning). Hwy 97 runs along a beautiful river:




The former site of the Woodstock Music & Arts Fair ["Woodstock"] is now called the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, and is a Very Corporate Organization, ranging from the neat and clean parking areas:

to the Offical Merchandise:

to the Schedule of Performing Artists (I'm glad to see that Neil is making a return visit on July 17):


At least the Box Office sign gives a shout-out to days-gone-by:

I didn't go originally - in 1969, at age 16, I was just a year too young. But it is nice to finally make the pilgrimage.

It was an hour-and-a-half to get over to the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY). In my app, they have 14 works by 9 artists. They have two lovely rooms for their Hudson River School artists:


Highlights include:
Two by Jasper Francis Cropsey:
"Evening at Paestum", 1856

"Artist Sketching on Greenwood Lake", 1869


Three by Sanford Robinson Gifford:
"Sketch of Gebel Haridi, on the Nile", 1869

"Tappan Zee", 1880

"Sunrise on the Bernese Alps"


John Frederick Kensett, "Berkeley Rock, Newport", 1856


Homer Dodge Martin, "Glen Ellis Falls", 1862


Aaron Shattuck, "Sunset at Lancaster, New Hampshire", 1859


plus lovely paintings by Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church, early George Inness, Asher B. Durand, William Hart, and Worthington Whittredge.

Elsewhere in the museum are works by:
Hubert Robert, "The Octavian Gate and Fish Market", 1784


Jackson Pollock, "Number 10", 1950

I was a little surprised by the vertical orientation - I am used to his work being primarily horizontal.

Of course I had to photograph the stainless steel sculpture (in their Sculpture Garden) - Frank Stella, "Etang d'ambach", 1992


Um, this is the junk metal I pulled out of the Gloucester Woods a week ago!



I have given a lot of space to Loeb Art Center because the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, although open, had nothing-I-like on display. SUNY at New Platz does have some pretty cool architecture, though:


I got to the Florence Griswold Museum (Old Lyme, CT) by 4. Although they have 7 works by 5 artists I love, none were on display. They did have a nice exhibit - All the Sea Knows: Marine Art from the Museum of the City of New York, with paintings by Edward Moran and Jasper Cropsey (no photos of the exhibit). The Florence Griswold House has a lovely painting by Childe Hassam, "Ten Pound Island", ca. 1896-99:

This was fun to see because Wendy and I went on a Cape Ann cruise last Friday evening, organized by the Thacher Island Association, and we cruised right past (and talked about) Ten Pound Island. Sometimes things all work together!

The Lieutenant River runs right behind the house - Wikipedia says "A number of noted American impressionist artists, including Childe Hassam, painted views of the river while staying at the Florence Griswold House in Old Lyme."


I then headed home - Wendy was coming off the Vineyard, and she wound up 2 cars behind me on 128 North in Danvers!!. Thank you, God, for a great day!

I don't remember the albums I played, but I think The Allman Brothers - Eat A Peach was one of them!