"Caritas by A.H. Thayer" 9 x 6 pen, ink, warm gray #Inktober

Spent some time at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts for my birthday yesterday.  I am a fan of Abbot Handerson Thayer, and spent some time studying this painting "Caritas", which the MFA purchased from Thayer in 1897.  My research tells me it may have a relationship to some of the images in a mural he was commissioned to paint at Bowdoin College.  I'll have to get up there to see that.  I love the romanticism of the figures, the clothing, and the sumptuous renaissance framing which is an art in itself.  The clothing reminds me of the "one Grecian Urn" scene from "The Music Man" with Hermione Gingold leading her women's group in a modern dance.  Here is a brief link to that iconic scene.    

I remember visiting Washington DC a number of years ago.  The National Art Gallery was under construction, so a subset of the work was hung, salon style, in the Renwick Gallery.  I stopped in my tracks in front of a painting of roses, and it was Abbott Handerson Thayer's work.  

 Look at it here... wow!!!!  The edges, control of values.  
So, spending part of my birthday studying paintings was a great joy.  
My 22nd entry for #Inktober is a value study of "Caritas".  Thanks for reading and for looking.

"Lincoln Maritime - July" watercolor & ink 4 x 6

 

I love the festive flags and bunting that adorn the buildings in July, and Hingham's Lincoln Maritime Center is no exception.  I always have, and as I write this, I think it's all due to Robert Preston. 

"The Music Man" movie, 1962, with Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, etc, is filled with holiday bunting.  The movie takes place during one summer in fictional River City, Iowa.  A lot of the movie's fabulous singing and dancing takes place in front of red, white, and blue bunting.  "The Music Man" was my Dad's favorite, and we grew up knowing every lyric, every move, every nuance.  I remember Dad telling us that the melody of "Good Night, My Someone" was the same as "76 Trombones", and I tried and tried to hear it.  I think I pretended I could (but I lied) .. now I can.  I loved the barbershop quartet, and sang along to "Lida Rose" and "Goodnight Ladies"... all the while, absorbing the patriotic bunting backdrop.  (Click the link above for the rousing win-them-over-by-hijacking-the-assembly-in-the-gym scene.)

Thanks for reminiscing with me, and thanks for looking.

Monhegan Chickens and a nod to "The Music Man"

Monhegan has chickens, in a lovely yard and garden along the road through the village.  They are usually picking and pecking their way around the yard and occasionally onto the road.  I like watching them, their movement simultaneously graceful and jerky.  

Of course, they remind me of my favorite musical "The Music Man", which we watched on TV, (I guess; pre-VCR), and listened to on my parents' soundtrack album.  Robert Preston was a force of nature, his movements so graceful and powerful, and his creation of Harold Hill simultaneously charming, romantic, unctuous, clever, deceitful, sensitive.. a fixture in our childhood home.

In honor of the chickens, here is "Pick a Little, Talk a Little/Goodnight Ladies" with Robert Preston and Hermione Gingold. Doesn't get much better... "brazen overtures!"

Thanks for looking.