Florida - Day Eighteen (Hicksville, NY - Huntington, NY - Roslyn, NY - Stony Brook, NY - East Hampton, NY - Orient Point, NY - New London, CT - Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA)

322 miles today (5241 miles for the whole trip!!). Wow - started off cold today - 29 degrees on my walk to breakfast.


and then a ferry from Orient Point across Long Island Sound to New London, then HOME!!


The Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, NY is a beautiful building:


unfortunately, the permanent exhibition area is closed for exhibition preparation


I'm sorry that I missed their Mythic Landscapes of America exhibition, which was from Nov 15, 2008 to Jan 4, 2009


at least I found the poster!


Down in Roslyn, NY, the Nassau County Museum of Art was closed for exhibition preparation


At this point, I tried directly calling the Long Island Museum (Stony Brook, NY) and the Guild Hall Museum (East Hampton, NY), but no one answered at either location - I guess I will take my chances.

The Art Museum at the Long Island Museum looks nice:


and - HOORAY - they had "some ART":

Winslow Homer - Watching the Surf, 1883


2 beautiful Thomas Moran paintings: Glimpse of the Sea, Near Amagansett, 1909


Hopi Village, Arizona, 1916


Although small, they have nice exhibition spaces:


Frederic Edwin Church - Autumn, 1845


John S. Jameson - Saranac Lake, 1861


attributed to Hermann Herzog - Untitled - Rocky Mountains Scene, c. 1874


Albert Bierstadt - Autumn Landscape, n.d.


Thomas Hill - View of Yosemite, c. 1887


3 works by William Trost Richards - Untitled - Seascape, 1901


Conament Shore, 1890


Sea Cliffs, 1870


Mauritz Frederick de Haas - Off the Coast, c. 1870


Alfred Thompson Bricher - Autumn Landscape, Southampton, 1882


additionally, at The Long Island Museum there was a very nice Ansel Adams exhibit (Ansel Adams: Early Works)!!

Whenever I take a photo of a work of art, I also try to take a photo of the information card. Sometimes I read them; sometimes I don't. In the case of the paintings at The Long Island Museum, I didn't read them - I was just so excited to see the art! It turns out that for the 13 paintings listed above:

3 are from The Long Island Museum
5 are from private collections
1 is from the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, NY (Long Island)
1 is from the Guild Hall Museum in East Hampton, NY (Long Island)
3 are from the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, NY (Long Island)

So I was actually able to see some of the art from the Heckscher, after all! [a Bierstadt, a Church, and a Moran!]

If I had been alert, the fact that one of Guild Hall's finest Thomas Moran paintings was up at The Long Island Museum should have rang some alarm bells. As it was, Guild Hall (in East Hampton) was only 1 hour 15 minutes down the road, so that's where I went. Unfortunately (you can see where this is going), they have no permanent exhibit - the two exhibit areas were "Student Student Arts Festival Part II: Grades 9-12". Two of the students were excellent photographers, and their works were nice to see.

Additionally, I drove right past the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, NY. Because they do not have a searchable database for their collection, they are not in my Where's the Art iPhone app, and, therefore, they are not on my radar screen. But as I mentioned above, one of their paintings was at The Long Island Museum - a beautiful William Trost Richards (Untitled - Seascape); so maybe if I had just driven in the driveway, I could have seen something beautiful. Oh well, next time ...

To get to the Orient Point ferry (to New London), I drove up NY-24 N/Riverhead-Hampton Bays Rd

I'm really curious about roads that have a single lane in one direction, but two lanes in the other direction? Is it like lemmings - do cars drive south on Long Island, then "jump off the cliff" at the beach at Montauk??

i saw some geese flying north - a sign of spring? The ferry from Orient Point was good to see, even if it reminds me of some sea-monster getting ready to eat me (Jonah's whale?)


I'm heading home, to my wonderful wife!


The ferry is not as roomy as the Steamship Authority


and, of course, always fill up Wendy's car after you have taken it on a trip (no matter how far)


Got home a little before 9 PM - thank you God for safe travels and wonderful adventures!

Listened to the big (160 gigs) iPod today:

after 2 Ultra-Lounge cds at the hotel,
Pink Floyd - Ummagumma (2 cds) (1969)


and because I'm on Long Island:
Billy Joel - Greatest Hits, Volume III (1997)


Billy Joel - Songs in the Attic (live) (1981)


after my experiences with museums today, I needed to shed a few tears, so its off to Bill Morrissey:
Bill Morrissey - Standing Eight (1989)


"Love Song/New York, 1982":
And if I seem to be ok
I'm just thinking of the time
I held her near.

hey, it turns out, after listening to the whole album, there are a lot of Bill Morrissey songs that don't make me cry.

Jefferson Airplane - After Bathing at Baxter's (1967)


while waiting in the ferry stand-by line - The Kinks - Greatest Hits! (1966)


Taj Mahal - Giant Step (1969)


"Six Days on the Road":
Six days on the road and I'm gonna see my baby tonight.

various artists - Woodstock (1970)

I was going for Ten Years After - "I'm Going Home", but I got home before the song played.

That's all, folks! (except for a wrap-up blog tomorrow)

Florida - Day Seventeen (Harrington, DE - Wilmington, DE - Winterthur, DE - Chadds Ford, PA - Staten Island, NY - Brooklyn, NY - Hicksville, NY)

250 miles today. Beautiful sunny day, but upper 40s all day. I saw my first "frozen ponds" this morning in the middle of Delaware. Not a lot of milage, but (hopefully) 5 museums today (Brooklyn is open until 10 tonight!)


There really were some lovely pieces at the Delaware Museum of Art in Wilmington, Delaware (old money, I guess ...), beginning with this Dale Chihuly installation - Persian Window (2004)


Andrew Wyeth - Tenant Farmer (1961)

Andrew Wyeth's paintings are usually behind glass. I certainly understand the preservation-aspect, but it is yet another barrier between you and the art. (Wait until you see "the barriers" in the Brooklyn Museum Storage Area!)

Asher B. Durand - Classical Landscape, c. 1850


Sanford Robinson Gifford - On the Nile, Gebel Shekh Hereedee, 1872


Frederic Edwin Church - South American Landscape (1873)


illustration by Leroy Scott, in McCall's, July 6, 1924
Early Tomorrow Morning, Mark and I Are Motoring Out To Stamford To Be Married

and don't the colors in the painting work well with the color of the wall

Howard Pyle - The Mermaid, 1910


a wonderful Thomas Moran etching - Tower Falls, Yellowstone, 1880


then just 5 miles north to visit the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library in Winterthur, Delaware (formerly the home of Henry Francis du Pont). A lesson I have learned (or so I thought I learned) is that when one is dealing with "art in grand estates" (Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park, for example), one may not get to "see the art" as quickly as one would wish or hope for (or even expect). You might have to go on a whole "house tour" to only get a few minutes seeing the paintings that you are interested in. Additionally, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller has a "no photographs" policy. And you generally cannot just "drive right up and walk right in" - I wound up walking 1.4 miles from my car to the house/museum and back.

ok - it is an imposing structure (and this is just the back side!)


I took a one-hour tour, but did not see the Frederic Church or William Sonntag paintings I was looking for. There are some nice maps


and the rooms are lovely (is that our furniture??)





I will call ahead next time to arrange to (hopefully) view the art in storage.

then only 15 minutes north is the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. It is primarily know for its Wyeth collections (N.C, Andrew, and Jamie), but it also has a permanent collection of other artists:

Edmund Darch Lewis - Scene in Chester Valley, 1856


Asher B. Durand - Landscape, Wood Scene (Sketch in the Woods), ca. 1854


a magnificent William Trost Richards - The Valley of the Brandywine, Chester County, September, 1886-1887


Jasper Cropsey - Autumn on the Brandywine River, 1887


photographs were allowed of Jamie's and N.C.'s works, but not of Andrew's.
Jamie Wyeth - Profile, in Fur, Nureyev (Study #9), 1977


Jamie Wyeth - The Islander, 1975

Unfortunately, I feel that almost all of Jamie's work comes with an attitude - a little rebellion, once in a while, is certainly ok, but if that is your life, it contaminates your work.

N.C. Wyeth - Treasure Island, endpaper illustration, 1911


and that print in the Museum Store looks familiar ...


Unfortunately, the Staten Island Museum did not have any of "my art" on display (although you can order prints ... we'll see)

There is a beautiful view of the New York skyline, though:

pretty cool - wild ponies one day, the New York skyline the next!

The Brooklyn Museum is open until 10 PM on Thursdays, so I get to SEE THE WHOLE MUSEUM!!
Their American Art and Storage Collection are up on the fifth floor (a nice workout getting up there after "hiking" at Winterthur and sitting in a car all day). I love what they do with color - that is Albert Bierstadt's A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie at the end of the hallways.