The December Travels

We typically make some sort of December trip. In years when long distance travel is not feasible, we can take advantage of the many options available to us in the northeast. One favorite is to visit the Yuletide at Winterthur, and the holiday decorating at nearby Longwood Gardens.

Winterthur picks a theme relating to history, holiday traditions, or the lives of the DuPonts. This year's seemed to be a mix, with some vignettes coordinated with their current exhibition of Currier and Ives prints.

Christmas morning, DuPont style

Mr. DuPont wanted nice table settings and decorations

The cut-off date for the collection was pre-Victorian, but this display was created to show 19th century traditions.

Longwood's outdoor lighting is beautiful, but if you can't manage the long walk or the cold, just visiting the acres of conservatories and greenhouses is a winter treat.

I didn't need the scarf and coat inside there.

Organist from Australia (with jeweled jacket)

 With rest breaks, including a carol singalong in the organ hall, we managed to see just about all of it.

Milling About

On the annual (and obligatory) foliage viewing trip this fall I meandered through the Monadnock region of New Hampshire, finally making a visit to Harrisville.

I heard about this old New England mill village years ago, both on the news (You can Buy this Entire Town!) and in various magazines. Seeing as how it was so close, I made the effort to check it out, and I was totally blown away.

I expected to see a collection of old, decrepit buildings with an accretion of industrial and commercial components. Instead, it is almost pristine in its 19th century appearance. In fact, if not for the automobiles of visitors, you would have to look hard to see modern day intrusions.

The short story is that at one point the corporation owning the complex went bankrupt, and a group formed to purchase and preserve the buildings, as well as obtaining easements that preserve the surrounding landscape. While there is not much commercial/retail for the casual visitor, just to wander about is worth making the trip.

The weather was perfect, I took lots of photographs, and expect to get some paintings out of this excursion.

For more information see www.historicharrisville.org

Old House in Need of Life Support

One of the blogs I look at, Old House Dreams, posts real estate listings featuring old homes, often as candidates for restoration. Many of these feature low prices (at least compared to other areas), prompting any number of "Oh, I would love to buy that and fix it up if it were only (in a place I actually wanted to live, wasn't in an economically depressed area, wasn't adjacent to a sewage treatment plant, etc.)."

One recent post was particularly intriguing, because I was somewhat familiar with the area, and was going to be traveling through it in the near future. The house is outside of Sharon Springs, NY (a town whose main activity seems to be the Instagramming of the abandoned spa and hotels from its heyday). This particular house had a gloomy, mysterious appearance. I thought it would make a great subject for a painting.

This house does take "fixer upper" to a whole new level, but the fact that you see little evidence of post-1900 material about provides it with a time-capsule, derelict atmosphere.

A better photographer than I am could probably do a good photo essay on this place. Will I ever do a painting? Who knows, but I am afraid anything I attempt would just be a "forlorn house" cliche.

Front view

Rear Left Corner

Side with missing chimney

Front door

Front and side. Guess light bill was unpaid.

Gable end

Rear view looks like someone tried residing with manufactured board

Looks like another missing chimney; probably a small porch was here as well.

A Visit to Portsmouth New Hampshire

We usually just pass by Portsmouth on our way to Maine, but this week we took a few days to explore the area. I wanted to see the Edmund Tarbell exhibit at the Portsmouth Discovery Center, and to photograph some of the historic architecture. And boy, Portsmouth is just stuffed with old houses - it's hard to believe so many of them have survived.

A wonderful city with some great restaurants, a lot of charm, and unfortunately, not much available parking. I went out Sunday morning to take pictures, since it was the only way to leave the car in some of the more congested historic areas. My advice for attempting this in high tourist season: walk or bike.

In addition to Portsmouth, poked around southern Maine a bit, as well. The amazing weather had everyone out, even on the beach!

Fun to be a tourist for a few days.

Waterfront, with Gardner-Wentworth house at center.

A typical Portsmouth street scene

Newcastle, NH

No, not a Hyatt. The old prison at the shipyard.

In Kennebunkport. Maybe the Bushes labeled this hunk of concrete.

A large chair in Kittery, Maine.

Nantucket

I was on a business/pleasure trip to Cape Cod this past week, and since the weather was so incredible took the fast ferry over to Nantucket. The weather next day was even better, so I went back to take more pictures.

A beautiful spot, but don't fall too much in love with it unless you have lots of spending money. Still, the convenience of the ferry lets you savor some of what the hedge fund managers have  - no charge to look!

The Berkshires in Winter Part II

The second day of our December trip to the Berkshires was devoted to museums. We were anxious to revisit the Clark (Sterling and Francine Clark Institute) in Williamstown, as we had not been there since the opening of the large remodeling/addition project. The approach to the new wing is rather cold and sterile (perhaps it would have felt more welcoming on a day with better weather.

New wing at the Clark 

The new wing has large open spaces for temporary exhibitions. Currently on view was Monet/Kelley, showing how Ellsworth Kelley was inspired by Monet's work and environment during his 1950s stay in France. The "finished" Monet's in this particular exhibit were, I felt, some of his least successful. But the large oil sketches were electrifying, and had you not known the artist, you might have guessed they were contemporary paintings. Sorry that I could not take pictures in this exhibit.

Impressionist Gallery at the Clark

19th Century Salon at the Clark

Grant Wood: Death on the Ridge Road, 1935. Williams College Museum of Art

Our next stop was the Williams College Museum of Art, with its interesting and eclectic collection ranging from Early American to contemporary. I was surprised and delighted to see one of my
favorite Grant Wood paintings in the collection, Death on the Ridge Road.

One of the current exhibits was Franz West (Austrian, 1947-2012). His works were strange, sometimes funny, particularly his "adaptives" which vaguely resembled tools and appliances you may see in a dream or nightmare. In his original gallery installations, he intended for visitors to pick up and handle these items in order to interact with the art (we did not have that privilege in the museum).

Franz West

We then moved on to Mass Moca in North Adams. The highlight was the multi-story installation by Sol Lewitt. While not an artist I particularly care for, it was fascinating to see an art environment so large you wander through it, almost as if in a shopping mall of visuals.

When you visit Mass Moca, you may not care for the art, but the visit is so immersive that even if you feel contemporary installation art is some sort of con game, you still can enjoy the ride through the artist's vision.

Winter in the Berkshires

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This past year's tactic of making trips closer to home is paying off. Our second December 2014 trip was a visit to the Berkshires. We have passed through on quick visits in previous years, but this was our first winter visit, and in spite of the gray weather, we really enjoyed seeing the landscape when it is not leaf covered.

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Whenever I read Edith Wharton's "Ethan Frome", I can almost feel the bitter cold and stark atmosphere. Having been through some of these small towns on a gray and snowy day, I can see that she captured them accurately.

Reminded me of Wharton's line about "the rest of the Fromes in the graveyard"

We opted to stay in Lenox, so we would be central to the museums. This also gave us the chance to sample a terrific restaurant in Lenox, Nudel.

Well, I picked the hotel because of the indoor pool, as well. 

On our first day, we visited the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield. A combination natural history and art museum, this was also the time of their "Festival of Trees", where local businesses and organizations sponsor trees decorated with a theme (this year's was "Safari"). Some were quite clever, and this did make an interesting addition for the season.

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Some of the galleries were devoted to a new installation of items from the permanent collection. Called  "Objectify" it juxtaposed various objects, and was designed to look as though items were shipped in from around the world, with the viewer seeing the uncrating. They also provided this lovely frame for "photo ops"

Where's John Singer Sargent when you need him?

Newport Holiday Decorations 2014

Instead of any major travels, this season we are taking some shorter trips closer to home. More and more sites are promoting their holiday decor, so this week we spend a couple days in the Newport, Rhode Island area.

Our first stop was Blithewold, in Bristol, Rhode Island. This home, while grand, is much smaller and homelike than the Newport mansions. The volunteers decorated throughout, with different themes. Some of these were clever interpretations, and all were lovely. The centerpiece, however, was the tree that was tall enough to reach the second floor in the stair hall.

The next day we toured three of the Newport mansions: The Breakers, Marble House and The Elms.

If you have never been to visit these mansions, you will probably have a hard time grasping the size and grandeur. These "palaces" were only intended for the summer season, so any holiday decor is a modern interpretation. Photography is not normally permitted, but during this season they do allow photographs of the main decorated areas in the three houses. Frankly, most of the decorating looked pretty much like what you would see an any upscale shopping mall or grand hotel lobby. It does seem like an uphill battle: Do you do simple designs that will be lost among the house's architecture, or try to match or out do it? 

The "Poinsettia Tree" under the watchful eye of a Breakers staff member.

The most intriguing aspect for me was the use of LED candles, which provided a lifelike, flickering flame effect. These are perfect for house museums, and also for people who don't want live flames around.

Marble House and The Breakers are both so over the top, that the floral decorations didn't have a chance (I didn't even have the heart to take a picture of the main hall at Marble House - even with a wreath of enormous size on the marble wall, it still looked just sad. The Elms, more restrained in its elegance, seemed like better coordination of color and theme.

A decorated mantelpiece at The Elms

The Elms grand holiday tree

But all was not lost. We had breakfast and lunch at Annie's restaurant on Bellevue Avenue - where the kitchen staff puts up the ceiling decorations. Apparently there will be a contest to guess the number of ornaments.