Friday, July 26, 2019

Long Island Art Museums: Day 2/2

Friday, July 26, 2019 - This is Day 2 of my 2-day-trip to see Long Island Art Museums:


My first museum, the Thomas & Mary Nimmo Moran Studio (part of the East Hampton Historical Society) is only open Fridays & Saturdays 10 AM - 4 PM. Since it is less than 2 hours away and I am going against rush-hour traffic, I figured that if I left at 8 AM I should be fine. The internet was bad in my room, so I just left at 7:20. Everything was fine until, after driving over 1 hour, I hit stopped traffic. I (along with everybody else) struggled through 5 miles of stop-and-go traffic because of a stop light (red-then-green-then-red) in Tuckahoe (part of Southampton). I then stopped for a cup of coffee, and a nice phone chat with Wendy, and continued on to East Hampton. I actually saw 3 of the Historical Society's properties - their main house at 101 Main Street:

their "Clinton Academy" house (151 Main Street):

and the "Thomas & Mary Nimmo Moran Studio" (229 Main Street):



Um, you realize that God had me "hit the road early" because he knew about the 5-mile traffic jam, which allowed me to keep to my original schedule.

The Exhibition at Clinton Academy is "Antique Maps of the South Fork":

nice, but the one I'm here to see is "Thomas Moran Discovers the American West"

This exhibit was mentioned to me in an email I received from the "Yellowstone National Park Museum Collection" (I'm thinking about visiting them during my August cross-country trip), and they said "There is also an exhibit being mounted at the East Hampton Historical Society in New York that includes a few of our Morans on loan."

There are 3 exhibition areas, with the biggest being in Thomas Moran's downstairs studio:


It was a great display of oils, watercolors, etchings and engravings. Highlights include:
"Lower Falls of the Yellowstone", circa 1885 oil, Dept. of the Interior, Yellowstone National Park:

"Cinnabar Mountain, Yellowstone River", July 20th, 1871 watercolor, Dept. of the Interior, Yellowstone National Park:

"Sand in the Canyon", 1871 watercolor, Dept. of the Interior, Yellowstone National Park:

"Above Tower Falls, Yellowstone", 1917 oil, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY:


There are a number of beautiful wood engravings, including "Mary's Veil, Utah", circa 1878 wood engraving, East Hampton Library:

and "the Grand Canyon", circa 1871 wood engraving, East Hampton Library:


I then headed 11 miles west, to the Parrish Art Museum (Water Mill, NY). It is kind-of unusual:


and maybe just a bit understated:



They have a cool wall-piece by Maya Lin - "Bay, Pond, & Harbor (Long Island Triptych)", 2014 (done in recycled silver):

and an exhibit of large photographs by Renate Aller.

"Mountain Interval Plate 53 #28s, Nepal, Himalayas Everest Region, December 2016":


The interior space is pretty cool:


Then it was a lovely drive around Great Peconic Bay to get up to North Fork:



I got to the ferry a little after 2, for my 3 PM reservation:

It was nice hanging out at the beach for a while:


good trip back across The Sound. It was really nice to see the Coast Guard's "Tall Ship" USCGC Eagle in New London:



For all my friends on the North Shore, The United States Coast Guard Barque Eagle is sailing toward Salem this summer! She will arrive mid-morning on Friday, August 9 and she will be in port at Salem Wharf, 10 Blaney Street, until August 12. I think you can just generally "go onboard" and walk around, but there is also a Special Tour (an exclusive Academy Admissions Information Session and private tour) Sat Aug 10 9 AM to 10 AM click here for info link

From New London, it was back up I-395 North, then the Mass Pike East. There was an accident on 495 in Chelmsford, so I came in to 95 (128) North, continuing up 95 to the Hampton Beach Casino:

It worked out GREAT, and I got to Dark Star Orchestra just after 8 PM:


um, the lights went down 1 minute after I took that picture.


Excellent show - great music, with no "rock star stuff" to get in the way. Everybody had a GREAT TIME. (and there was a lot of tie-die!) Cool t-shirt:


By 10:30 I had had enough and headed home - in bed by midnight! Thank you God for these Super-wonderful adventures! (And Thanks to you for coming along!)

Today, for my listening pleasure, I am listening to one of my mp3 cds that I burned back in February 2000:

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Southern Accents, 1985


Buffalo Springfield - Retrospective, 1969


Steely Dan - Greatest Hits, 1978 double album


The Doors - the Doors, 1967 debut album


The Waterboys - This is the Sea, 1985


The Beatles - "Yesterday" and Today, 1966


Joan Baez - Diamonds & Rust, 1975


Thursday, July 25, 2019

Long Island Art Museums: Day 1/2

Thursday, July 25, 2019 - Wendy and Ellie are going to a play down in Falmouth, so I'm going to head over to Long Island for an overnight. After my Thursday Men's Breakfast in Boston, I headed out the Mass Pike towards Worcester, then south on I-395:


I had made reservations on the 11:30 boat, but I got there at 10:40, and got on the 11 AM boat! It was a beautiful day for an ocean voyage (well, at least a "cross-sound" voyage):




Looking toward Orient Point, and the North Fork of Long Island:


I wanted to go along the North Shore of Long Island (Route 25A), and visit 3 museums: The Long Island Museum (Stoney Brook, NY), The Heckscher Museum of Art (Huntington, NY), and Nassau County Museum of Art (Roslyn, NY):


It was a nice day on 25A:


I was 2 days early for the "Gracefully Chic" exhibit, but was able to see a couple of Kensett's, and a drawing by Winslow Homer.



An hour down the road, and I had a much more successful visit at The Heckscher Museum of Art:

Although they have a wonderful collection of their own (Bierstadt, Church, Durand, Homer, Moran, Sonntag, plus more), the only thing on display was selections from the Bank of America Collection - I LOVE THIS TYPE OF EXHIBITION! Pieces from these Corporate Collections surface Very Rarely:


Childe Hassam - "Old House, East Hampton", 1917 oil


Sanford Robinson Gifford - "Mount Tacoma from Puget Sound (Mount Rainier)", 1877 oil


Albert Bierstadt - "At the Summit, Estes Park Colorado", 1870 oil


Thomas Moran - "View of Fairmount Waterworks, Philadelphia", c. 1860-70 oil


Samuel Colman - "Watering the Herd", 1869 oil


Guy Carleton Wiggins - "Trinity Church, Wall Street", c. 1938 oil

It reminds me of Childe Hassam's "Flag" paintings, which I think are wonderful.

30 minutes farther down the road is the Nassau County Museum of Art:




Lovely building - not-so-lovely art collection.

The only thing I liked - Doug Argue - "Dancing on the Beach", 2019 oil:


And from there I headed back east on Long Island, to the Rodeway Inn in Huntington Station, NY - Thank you God for these wonderful adventures! and, as I told Wendy on the phone, my "video needs" for this evening are all taken care of:

(after scoring 7 runs in the first inning, the Red Sox went on to win 19-3)

Today, for my listening pleasure, I am listening to one of my mp3 cds that I burned back in February 2000:

Stevie Nicks - Bella Donna, 1981 debut solo album


Bluegrass At Newport: Recorded Live At The Newport Folk Festivals 1959, 60 & 63


Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends, 1968


Steve Miller Band - Children of the Future, 1968 debut album


Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen, 1967 debut album

with "Master Song", "Winter Lady", and "The Stranger Song" (all included in Robert Altman's 1971 movie "McCabe & Mrs. Miller"), you are guaranteed to get chills

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - 4 Way Street, 1971 live double album


The Doobie Brothers - Livin' on the Fault Line, 1977


Peter Allen - It Is Time for Peter Allen, 1977 live double album