Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, N.H.

Friday, Oct 28, 2016 - Wendy and my day trip to the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, N.H.:

2 1/2 hours driving; 141 miles. I was so excited to get there I got on 95 North by mistake, but it is easy taking 101 west to Manchester, N.H.

The reason for this trip is the Currier has a wonderful exhibition - Mount Washington: The Crown of New England - Oct 1, 2016 through Jan 16, 2017:


We left home at 11, and got their in time for a very civilized lunch in their dining courtyard:


Then into their exhibit. The Currier has done a fabulous job gathering beautiful works-of-art from many museums, including:

the Davis Museum at Wellesley College
the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University
the Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina
the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia
the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine
the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2)
the Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany, New York
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
the New Hampshire Historical Society
the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate, Norfolk Connecticut
the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut (2)
private collections (3)
the Currier's own collection (5)

John Kensett - Mount Washington from the Valley of Conway, 1851, Davis Museum


Jasper Cropsey - Mount Washington from Lake Sebago, Maine, about 1867


Sanford Robinson Gifford - Indian Summer in the White Mountains, 1862, Mint Museum


Albert Bierstadt - The Emerald Pool, 1870, Chrysler Museum of Art




Jasper Cropsey - An Indian Summer Morning in the White Mountains, 1857, Currier Museum of Art


David Johnson - Study, North Conway, New Hampshire, 1851, The Cleveland Museum of Art


Thomas Cole - Storm near Mount Washington, about 1828, Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate


Thomas Cole - View in the White Mountains, 1827, Wadsworth Atheneum


I have previously described a visit to the Currier, and their Permanent Collection (link to May 30, 2015 blog), so I won't repeat myself today.

WHAT A GREAT ADVENTURE!! Thank You God for these Great Days!

Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire/Vermont/Maine (On Sept. 1, I joined Deede and Tad hiking Mt. Katahdin [Hunt Trail] - his final day on the AT!)
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/

Fall 2016 - Day 28: Scranton, PA - Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA

Wednesday, Oct 12, 2016 - Day’s Inn, Scranton, PA - Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA:

332 total miles driving today! 9,016.4 miles total trip! (and 21 Museums!)

Scranton, Pennsylvania is down in a valley, and the morning sun does a great job lighting it up:


At a rest stop in New York State:


Welcome To Connecticut, and the colors start getting pretty:


Still in Connecticut, 5 miles southwest of the Massachusetts State Line is a beautiful pond:



And then onto the Mass Pike:


A quick stop at the Newton Free Library to rip some music - because I don't have enough music:


I got to Manchester-by-the-Sea a little after 3. It is a beautiful day, so I decided to treat the town like one of my "tourist towns" on this trip - where are the "Pretty Places"?

I started up at Chebacco Lake:



Beck Pond is just a little further up the road:


Back down Pine Street, and my favorite "Fall Tree" is right there on Bridge Street:


Out Beach Street for a view of the harbor:

and the view back towards town (with "plein air" artists hard at work):


Continuing down Beach Street to Singing Beach:




I then headed east out Summer Street, then down Ocean Street to White Beach:


And then around the corner to Black Beach, and a boat sailing into Kettle Cove (good luck with that!)


the marshes between Black Beach and White Beach


A final look from Black Beach out Kettle Cove:


Ah, Home Sweet Home:


WHAT A GREAT ADVENTURE!! Thank You God for these Great Days!

Music today - more "2nd Albums" (isn't this FUN!):

Bill Morrissey - North, 1991


Lyrics: "Fishing a Stream I Once Fished as a Kid"
The air is still the sun is low
Day is almost over now
I can see myself here years ago
And I dream I am nine again
When it seems like Summer never ends

Big Head Todd and the Monsters - Midnight Radio, 1990


Quite a contrast from Bill Morrissey to Big Head Todd. "Monument In Green" is one of the best songs I have ever heard. Turn it up and be swept away by the lyrics and the music.

Bananarama - Bananarama, 1984


Blood, Sweat & Tears - Blood, Sweat & Tears, 1968


Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - 4-Way Street, 1971


Frank Turner - Love Ire & Song, 2008


Thank you all for coming along on this great adventure! Quick note: I will be updating some past blogs, and the way blogspot works is that it re-publishes them; so you may be getting them in your email. Don't be concerned - I'm home for a while.

Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire/Vermont/Maine (On Sept. 1, I joined Deede and Tad hiking Mt. Katahdin [Hunt Trail] - his final day on the AT!)
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/

Fall 2016 - Day 27: Wheeling, WV - Pennsylvania Art Museums - Scranton, PA

Tuesday, Oct 11, 2016 - Super 8 Wheeling, WV - Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA - Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA [The Finest of Forty] - Juniata College Museum of Art, Huntingdon, PA - Day’s Inn, Scranton, PA:

385 total miles driving today!

It is an "Art Day" today - the first stop is an 11 AM appointment with Barbara L. Jones, Chief Curator, The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, PA for an exclusive "storage room" tour! (note the grill-work):


Beauties downstairs included:
Albert Bierstadt - California Coast, n.d.


Jasper Cropsey - Starrucca Viaduct, 1896


John Kensett - Twilight on the Seashore, c. 1872


Upstairs I was able to see:
Alfred Thompson Bricher - View Near Point Judith, Rhode Island, c. 1880


Alfred Thompson Bricher - Point Judith, Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, c. 1885


James Brade Sword - Silver Thread Falls, Pennsylvania, 1874


George Hetzel - Rocky Gorge, 1869


Joseph Ryan Woodwell - Seascape, Magnolia, MA, 1887

(GREAT Picture, but I'm sorry, I don't think it looks like anywhere in Magnolia that I know of.)

George Hetzel and Joseph Ryan Woodwell were members of the Scalp Level School of artists - named for a region of Pennsylvania 40 miles east of Greensburg. James Brade Sword visited occasionally. I have to stop being so PROVINCIAL - thinking that the "Hudson River School" was the ONLY gathering-of-good-artists in the later half of the 19th century.

I then headed 2 hours down the road to Saint Francis University in Loretto, PA - their museum is the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art. I had stopped by previously in 2013, but this time I had called ahead, and they are having their special exhibit: The Finest of Forty - Outstanding Art from the Permanent Collection.

Otto Gerhardt - Untitled (Scene in the Grand Canyon), 1923


Hermann Herzog - Untitled Landscape, n.d.


John Sloan - Bright Rocks, Gloucester, 1915


Walasse Ting - Spring Sunshine, 1985


Continuing down the road, I was only 5 minutes late for my 3 PM appointment with Kathryn E. Blake, Director, Juniata College Museum of Art, down in the storage vault:


Albert Bierstadt - Mountain Pool (Emerald Pool), 1869


Thomas Moran - Communipaw, February 1879, watercolor


Thomas Moran - Sketch of Ancient Ruins from Shelley's "Alastor", 1856 graphite and brown ink


Ha ha - I'm going "80 on 80".

Unfortunately, that's not going to work tomorrow, when I'm on 90 (the Mass Pike).

Ah, which way should I go?


Got to the Day's Inn in Scranton, PA after dark. Thank You God for these Great Days!

Music today - more "2nd Albums" (isn't this FUN!):

Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy, 1978


Van Morrison - Moondance, 1970


Traffic - Traffic, 1968


Thompson Square - Just Feels Good, 2013


The Killers - Sam's Town, 2006


Sade - Promise, 1985


R.E.M. - Reckoning (studio cd & live cd), 1984

EXCELLENT DRIVING MUSIC!

John Mayer - Heavier Things, 2003


Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire/Vermont/Maine (On Sept. 1, I joined Deede and Tad hiking Mt. Katahdin [Hunt Trail] - his final day on the AT!)
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/