Gray days and museums

Hoo boy, was it a gray gray day here, today. No snow to complain about, and no torrential downpours, but very gray, with very little light. I poo pooed the new beginning Daylight Saving Time in March, but I have adjusted to it. I actually like it now. The darkness of today at 5 p.m. threw me off.

This was the kind of day where, if I lived in a city, I would abandon my work and spend a few hours in an art museum. I thought of my trip to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore in January where I saw work by Monet, Cassat, Picasso, Renoir, Degas; all those people I first met in high school during art appreciation class. Today would have been perfect for the quiet anonymity of walking through an art museum.

I have tried painting with oils a little bit, and I let myself get so frustrated when I do. Creating a realistic or recognizable image of life does not come naturally to me. I am drawn more to the abstract images with sharp lines.

Like the work of Paul Klee

and especially Joan Miro

I like the lines of this sculpture by Louise Nevelson

and the simplicity of this pre-Columbian sculpture. I wonder if the artist worried about how life-like his figure was?

I know I am really lucky to be able to live on a small island off the coast of Maine, where all I have to do is go outside to be surrounded by natural beauty.  But if you live anywhere near an art museum, especially on a gray day, I think you are lucky too!