Passing Miss Porter's School for Girls and turning left towards the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, CT., a couple of thoughts crossed my mind. Having worked a decade earlier in the area, and never noticing the turn or even the museum, would I had cared about its exsistence years earlier? Driving down a gravel roadway, these were the thoughts I had, as I pulled up to the parking area and surveying the ample grounds.

Walking towards a structure which housed the gift shop / registration center complete with looping history of the museum being played on a nearby television. I tried to clear my head of any distractions. I was here to learn something new about art, not experience some psychological breakthrough.

Paying a nominal fee and learning the next tour would start in 10 minutes, I decided to have a look around the grounds. Purchased by Alfred A Pope and his wife Ada in the early 1900's, "Hillstead's original pathway system was used for both farming and recreation." The husband and wife team purchased surrounding tracts of land until they amassed app. 250 acres (100 acres were sold at a later date.)

The only child of Alfred and Ada, Theodate Pope-Riddle, Effie at birth, was the actual architect of the house. Studying privately, the strong-willed daughter designed the structure and land to follow the "English Landscape movement and Colonial Revival style." Completion commenced in 1901. Also noteworthy, Theodate was the founder of Avon Old Farms.

Founded in 1947, the three floor, 33,000 square foot Clap-board museum, holds app 250 prints / photographs, 3,300 books, and a vast array of French Impressionist Paintings from heavy hitters such as Edgar Degas and Claude Monet. Never overwhelming, the museum has the cozy charm of a house while still remaining its elegant stature of a historic landmark. Something not lost on app. 32,000 visitors a year.

Opulant and regal, the main dining room, filled with hues of rich colors and tones, also encompasses a major piece of artwork..."Jockeys - Pastel on paper (1886) by Edgar Degas (1834-1917). The painting while small, packs a large viewing punch. Don Minnich, my chosen docent, urges me to take notice of the surroundings. Large ornate gold frame, Ming Dynasty vase and well-worn green carpeting, the room complements the painting......or vice-versa. Vintage wooden knife boxes on either side of the painting further balances the piece.

Lighter and Brighter

Degas, a French Impressionist artist "visible brushstrokes, bright colors, effects of passage of time and unusual angles" - considered to be one of the founders, employed the use of paint, drawings, and sculpture that grew out of the (Realism movment - showing subjects as they normally are, minimal effects) was born to parents of moderate wealth. Showing an aptitude at an early age, Degas was allowed to turn one of the rooms of the house into a painting studio. This favored means of painting indoors( one of his constants) stayed with him his entire career. Degas is reported to have mostly avoided the practice of painting outdoors and work in the studio, where he felt he had more control under an enclosed structure.

At the time Degas was starting to come into his own, he studied drawing with Louis Lamothe and later at the Ecole des Beaux- Arts (school of fine arts) under the tutorage of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres who uttered the influencial lines, "draw lines, young man...many lines."

Visiting Italy, Degas is also to have been influenced by artists such as Michelangelo and Raphael.

Degas liked to repeat subject matter, showing "real" people in "real" settings enjoying "real" situations. He also dabbled in photography, using pictures as well as memory as a reference for his works.

Not merely an impressionist painter, Degas is considered to be have a style all his own, a hybrid of Realist/ Classicist and Impressionist movements. Degas's varied influences ranged from French artist - Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, as well as from works of Japanese Prints. Degas often reused his favorite subjects, dancers and horses. It is reported he completed over 1,500 works of dancers alone.

"Art is not what you see....but what you make others see." E. Degas.

Standing in the main dining room, staring at Edgar Degas's painting - Jockeys, my first impression was, it's pretty small ( no hard dimensions given), but also how bright and colorful the painting is. Blue sky, green open field, colorful jockeys leisurely riding their prized horses (before or after the big race.) Interesting, one of the jockeys seems to be bucking the tide and heading back towards the other riders, like a rebellious salmon fighting against the current.

"Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do." E. Degas.

The use of yellow also seems to be a major theme in the painting. Used sparingly, but effectively, the color is perhaps used as a type of balance; one jockey on either end of the painting has hints of yellow, as well as the grass below. Seen on a few jockeys, as well as scattered on the lawn, it's highlights, only adding to the bright afternoon day.

As noted earlier, Degas's favoritism of repeating can also be seen in the use of color. See how the color on the jockey's pants is also shown on the horse's hind quarters, a shimmering example of reflection and beauty.

The "speed" of the painting although relaxed, has the intention of at least one of the riders getting ready to start a fast gallop. I like the way, movement is subdued and encouraged at the same time.

Curiously, the use of a sharp border on the top of the painting, has the added effect of centering the subjects, where the viewer may be perhaps be a jockey themself, given them equal footing among the other riders.

Until next time.......

Pulling up to the New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA) in New Britain, CT, I felt surprisingly at ease. Maybe it was the serene surroundings, or maybe because the sun was shining, I knew I was in for a relaxing day of art viewing. The newly completed 43,000 square foot Chase Family Building seemed more like a large home, than a renowned museum. According to Melanie Eveleth, visitor services supervisor, the structure houses twelve galleries with more than 5,000 works, from 18th century to present. The NBMAA is the oldest museum in the country to dedicate itself solely to American art.

Walking past a modern seating arrangement in the front of the museum, and then through large steel and glass doors, I made a mental note to ask if the seats were from the store - Design Within Reach. As I was handed my museum brochure, I was told that the set did in fact come from the aforementioned business. Armed with a new confidence (at least with seating) a new 7.1 mp camera, dull pencil, and notebook, I headed for the Walter Wick exhibit.

"A painter for the People."
Remembering the Promise, the first piece of art that moves me, I'll write about, I noticed a painting of two individuals in combat. Dirtied and bloodied, clothes torn asunder, disholved faces reading each other. It was N.C. Wyeth's 1911 Oil on Canvas painting, "One more step, Mr. Hands.....and I'll blow your brains out," that stopped me cold.

One of America's preeminent Illustrators, Newell Convers Wyeth, N.C. Wyeth to you and me, was born in 1882 in Needham, MA. A son of a practical father and a emotional nourishing mother, Wyeth's love of the outdoors stemmed from his life on the family farm. Attending Mass. Normal Art School, Wyeth was encouraged to go the illustration route by teacher Richard Andrews.

Following advice from friends, Wyeth later attended Howard Pyle's Wilmington, Delaware school, where he was introduced to "The Use of Dramatic Effect." A style that basically defined his career. Wyeth was quoted as saying he "learned more in 5 minutes from a Pyle lecture, than he had learned in his entire previous education." Less than four months later (Wyeth) landed his first published work for the Saturday Evening Post, February 21, 1903. Other works followed quickly in magazines such as Century, Harpers, Outing and Scribners. In all, Wyeth drew and painted about 3,000 pictures and over a hundred illustrations.

"Realism came from hands on Experience"
Part of the Golden age of Illustration (1880's -1920's) it occurred to me that Wyeth was Pulp art, before pulp art became pulp art. Persons in mid-movement, lurid (perhaps for the time) subjects in compromising situations. Big, bold brushstrokes, "raw" colors, showing
characters "mixed with vivid imagination and masterful technique images," briefly defines pulp art and Wyeth's work. Like pulp art, Wyeth placed solitary or few people in the foreground. He felt this technique, "enhanced the dramatic." This is strongly evidenced by his work for the Robert Lewis Stevenson Novel - Treasure Island.

Two figures locked in combat, sea spray whipping their faces into a sullied and frenzy grimace, soiled by blood and sweat clinging to a mast, armed with dual guns and knives, just screams realism. I find Wyeth's use of movement refreshing. Wyeth is quoted as saying," Realism came from hands on experience." Spending time in the west in the early 1900's, it is evident how he came involve the process of nature as the second act. The first being his subjects. After viewing a diverse collection of "posed" pieces, I come to realize how "alive" his works really are. Even in his 1924 work of a Ladies Home Journal, the "posed" subject appears to be full of life.

Wyeth's use of the dramatic in the foreground, from the shading on the faces, to the detail on the clothing help set the painting's tone. At closer inspection, I also notice that in many of Wyeth's works, the serene background takes a backseat to the action-packed foreground. Does mankind upset the delicate balance of nature....or enhance it? I like Wyeth's use of dichotomy between man and nature.

Another key point to Wyeth's work is in the subject's faces. In many of his works, the subjects appear to starring in a contemplative manner...almost heroic. In his 1947 magazine cover for Woman's Day "The Yearling," the young person is staring into the fire, holding on to a small deer, lost in thought and mood. His works appear to be compassionate, yet strong at the same time.

"Have Egg will travel"
Although Wyeth achieved great acclaim from his oil, water colors, and illustrations. He also used a process called egg tempera, in which the egg yolk was used as the medium, producing a unique effect. The is shown in Wyeth's 1947 work, "Dodges Ridge." For me, the use of this technique "softened" his paintings, almost dulling them. The expressions, the life, the characters in the frame are muted, leaving the viewer yearning for more. Until then.......