No directions needed today - just straight up 95 North! I love driving early morning on the weekends - the roads are practically empty. In Delaware the cops pulled over a guy right in front of me. In New York, just before the CT border, the cops pulled over a guy right behind me. Watch out, Jesse Bear!
On the New Jersey Turnpike, there are two sections: cars only, or cars/trucks/buses. I usually have really good luck being in the cars/trucks/buses lanes:
Traffic wasn't bad going over the George Washington Bridge:
In reviewing my blogs, I never wrote one about Wendy and me visiting Yale Center for British Art and Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, CT) in November 2013. So here we go - Yale Center for British Art:
Canaletto (he counts as a "British Artist" because he was "active in Britain 1746-55") - Westminster from Near the Terrace of Somerset House, ca. 1750
Canaletto - The City from Near the Terrace of Somerset House, ca. 1750
I believe the museum is best known for its collection of works by Joseph Mallord William Turner, arguably the greatest British Artist:
Dort or Dordrecht: The Dort packet-boat from Rotterdam becalmed, 1818
Staffa, Fingal's Cave, 1831 to 1832
Stormy Sea Breaking on a Shore, between 1840 and 1845
Inverary Pier, Loch Fyne: Morning, ca. 1845
Right across the street is the Yale University Art Gallery
an excellent Jackson Pollock - Number 13A: Arabesque, 1948
Georgia O'Keeffe - Bob's Steer Head, 1936
I like Georgia O'Keeffe's "skull paintings" - they evoke a dry, arid land, with subtle color gradations. The objects are usually alone in the frame, with some sort of sand-texture providing the background. Unfortunately, these "skull paintings" are only a small portion of her work.
I don't know if it is "Art", but it sure has a lot of fun colors:
William T. Williams - It's the Time of the Mind in the Middle of the Day, 1970
Bernardo Bellotto - The Lock at Dolo, ca. 1745
detail:
Giovanni Paolo Panini - A Capriccio of the Roman Forum, 1741
Francesco Guardi - View of the Grand Canal from the Ponte di Rialto, after 1775
I LOVE the Venetian artists who painted veduta [A veduta (Italian for "view"; plural vedute) is a highly detailed, usually large-scale painting]. The best were Canaletto (1697-1768), Michele Marieschi (1710-1743) and Bernardo Bellotto (1721-1780). Francesco Guardi (1712-1793) had the raw talent to take it to another level - his dramatic skies and almost-haphazard buildings just work very well together; he certainly foreshadows J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) and Thomas Moran (1837-1926).
Claude Monet - Port-Domois, Belle-Île, 1887
I thought this looked familiar. Last week Wendy and I went down to the Peabody-Essex Museum (Salem, Mass.) for their opening of the exhibition: American Impressionist: Childe Hassam and the Isles of Shoals, and we saw his Isles of Shoals, 1907 from the North Carolina Museum of Art
Albert Bierstadt and his iconic Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point Trail, ca. 1873
Frederic Edwin Church - View of Cotopaxi, 1867
It was 101º on 91 heading North to Hartford, but the Wadsworth Atheneum was open and cool.
Highlights include:
Andrew Wyeth - Northern Point, 1950
This may be his best painting - the shingled roof, the metallic lightning rod, the grassy field, the rocky coastline, and the texture of the water - all familiar items, but painted from a viewpoint most of us never get (up on the roof).
Canaletto - The Square of Saint Mark's and the Piazzetta, Venice, c. 1731
Claude Monet - Nymphéas (Water Lilies), 1907
Thomas Cole - Kaaterskill Falls, 1826
As I go through the Weston tolls, it is 98º - I get a car wash in Revere, and a huge thunderstorm comes through, and it drops to 75º
And I wound up with dinner at White Beach, Manchester-by-the-Sea:
481 miles driven today (2588 total miles!). Thank you God for these wonderful Adventure Days!
Music today - windows rolled down ("F" albums on my iPod):
R.E.M. - Fables of the Reconstruction, 1985
There was a time when R.E.M. was the most important band on the planet - listening to this album, I can believe it.
"Maps and Legends" lyrics:
Maybe he's caught in the legend
Maybe he's caught in the mood
Maybe these maps and legends
Have been misunderstood
Down the way the road's divided
Paint me the places you have seen
Those who know what I don't know
Refer to the yellow, red, and green
Maybe he's caught in the legend
maybe he's caught in the mood
Maybe these maps and legends
Have been misunderstood
The map that you painted didn't seem real
He just sings whatever he's seen
Point to the legend, point to the east
Point to the yellow, red, and green
Malcolm McLaren - Fans, 1984
This is a pretty cool album, a fusion of opera with 1980s R&B. A friend from Business School made Wendy and me a mix tape in the early 80's, and "Madame Butterfly" is on it. It was a GREAT tape, and every ten years or so I keep asking Jim to make another (no luck yet).
Robert Plant - Fate Of Nations, 1993
Taylor Swift - Fearless, 2008
(pretty cool listening to country/pop Taylor as I drive over the George Washington Bridge into New York City)
Norah Jones - ... Featuring Norah Jones, 2010
it is 98º as I hit the CT border, so windows are up, air conditioning on low, and soft Norah Jones sounds great.
Since the windows are rolled up, I'm skipping Jimmy Buffett - Feeding Frenzy [Live], 1990
Lyle Mays (Pat Metheny's keyboardist) - Fictionary, 1993
Field Report - Field Report EP, 2012
Q-Burns Abstract Message - Feng Shui, 1998
Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire (I have done all 48-of-48 thru July 2016!!)
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/
