William S. Paley Collection at Crystal Bridges

In a post from a few days ago (found here), I talked about my visit to Crystal Bridges. I took some photos of the amazing grounds and architecture. I love taking photos there because they look different each time I go. Different light, different seasons, and different art displays.

In this post, I would like to show some photos of the some art that was on display in a special exhibition(the show ended July , the William S. Paley Collection.  Some of my favorite works shown in this show. I took several, but I seem to have been drawn to the Picasso paintings and the other cubism style paintings. Many people do not understand cubism. I used to be one of those, until I taught my high school students about cubism and made several cubist style examples. I think it is more about the design and the composition, which is a challenge.  Creating cubism art is not a simple as it looks, which makes these paintings by Picasso so interesting to me.  Although my art is not so abstract, I do like to incorporate some cubist elements into some of my art.

I look forward to sharing more, in the future, about more trips to Crystal Bridges.

Here is a link to my trip when the Norman Rockwell exhibit was there. Although no photos of the traveling exhibit was allowed, I did get some photos of some of the permanent exhibit.

Beth♥

Trip to Crystal Bridges

Now that I am in Northwest Arkansas, I am within a 20 minute drive of the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Before moving here, I had visited the museum twice before.  But since moving here 3 months ago, I had not been there. Thursday I finally took the afternoon to go for a visit.  I met up with some hometown classmates to have lunch there, so that was the perfect time to take in the current exhibit.

I love the scenery around the museum as much as I enjoy seeing the exhibits. Here are a few of the scenes from my walk around the museum.

From the Silver Tree outside the museum to the gold heart hanging over the restaurant in the museum.


I did take some photos of the art on exhibit, but I will leave that for another post. It was a beautiful day for a stroll through the exhibit and the grounds.

For more information on this destination, click on here:
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Edit: For more photos of the actual exhibit click here:
William S. Paley Collection at Crystal Bridges

Beth♥

Spring Break and Norman Rockwell

Spring Break has always been a good time to take some time off from the every day rush of work and home chores. But now that I am not teaching and I am working at home, I realized that I should still take that time off to refresh.  My daughter's birthday usually falls during Spring Break, and this year it was again. So our Spring Break getaway was to go see her. Since she has a big girl job now, we went to visit her for a few days.  While we were there, we took a trip to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art to see the Norman Rockwell Exhibit.  Although the weather was not very Spring Break like, (more like winter break) I was very excited to go see this exhibit! It is always great to see art, that you have admired in books, up close and personal.  When I taught art, I used to teach a unit about Norman Rockwell.  I had a video about the artist that I would show every year, which means I saw the video 4 to 5 times per year times for approximately 20 years!  I went to the exhibit with my daughter and my 'hubby' (the loyal husband that will go to just about any art event that I ask him to).  Even though neither of them wanted to linger at each painting like I did.  It wasn't long before they left me behind in the crowds, that were also listening to the audio tour guide with me.  I seemed to be in a crowd of too many people to get up close and personal, like I wanted to, so I had to start going out of order.  I would try to find a painting, that I was familiar with, that did not have 20 people around it, so I could walk up to it and really see the brushstrokes and the pencil marks that Norman Rockwell so carefully placed on the canvases. It was great to see such talent up close.  They would not allow photos to be taken of the Rockwell exhibit, but I was able to take some photos of the permanent collection and some of the views from the museum.  Next time I go, I hope the weather will be nicer, so I can take some photos of the outdoor gardens.  I really enjoyed the exhibit, and my second trip to the museum, and I am really happy that Arkansas now has this beautiful place to visit!  I'm sure I will be going many more times!

"American Gothic" in spools of thread.
You have to look through the sphere to see it right side up.
Or when you take a photo, turn it upside down.

"Rosie the Riveter"
Norman Rockwell
(part of the permanent collection)

Click on the photo of the painting of "Rosie the Riveter" to read more about how the museum acquired this painting.  

If you are traveling near Northwest Arkansas, I recommend that you go visit Crystal Bridges, if you enjoy looking at great American Art!  I will post more photos from my visit soon. Have a wonderful Easter weekend! 

Happy Easter!  

Beth  ♥  

Trip to Crystal Bridges

This is Spring Break and I visited my daughter for her birthday.  Northwest Arkansas has so much to do so we took advantage of the time together.  Sunday we went to a Razorback baseball game. It was my first Razorback baseball game to attend. I've been to some football games and one basketball game, so this was new.  The baseball team is very good and they did win their game. The weather was pretty, although I kept worrying about the clouds that periodically clouded the stadium.  I knew the rain would be here soon.   

Me standing by the window overlooking the water
and the museum.

Then Monday our trip to Crystal Bridges had to be postponed until Wednesday because of the crowds and the rain. The rain started before we got up Monday morning, and thinking that the weather would keep any crowds away, we took our time getting to the museum.  Well, when we got there, I realized I was wrong!  All of the parking lots were full, so we decided to try again Wednesday. We still had to endure the rain, but we got there earlier, so we wouldn't have to walk 2 miles in the rain to get to the front door!  It was worth the wait, see the cupcake? That was dessert after a wonderful plate of chicken salad and fruit that was delicious!  I do want to return another time when the weather is much better.  We could not explore the beautiful grounds outdoors and many things were in bloom! 

Crystal Bridges is a beautiful Museum, inside and out. It just opened in Bentonville, Arkansas in Oct. 2011, built by Alice Walton, daughter of the late Sam Walton (Wal Mart). She collects American art and decided to build this museum here in Arkansas and I think it is just great! I'm posting photos of the grounds and inside a couple of areas, but not the artwork. I don't want to break any copyright laws or anything, but there are many famous artworks in there including some of Norman Rockwell's (Rosie the Riveter), Grant Wood, Chuck Close, Mary Cassatt, Jacob Lawrence, Frank Stella...and many more.
Here is a link for anyone in the area that may want to go for a visit: Crystal Bridges Website

My daughter always walks away from me when I am taking pictures! But I love this one for some reason.

Beautiful scenery outside! Wish we could have explored, but that will have to wait until another trip and a sunny day!

I wanted a photo of this tree sculpture that is just outside the front of the museum, and since my daughter will not pose for me, I asked her to take this one of me.  Yes, I was standing in the rain and it was a little on the chilly side, but its a cool tree sculpture. Not so much a good photo of me though. 


The rest of Spring Break will be resting! Back to work on Monday! 






Beth♥