Visiting some of the GREATEST art musuems without ever leaving home!

Some of my most enduring memories are associated with museums. I have been blessed with many opportunites to see incredible works of art and artifacts in person. I never really thought about this being a "lucky" thing, it was just part of my childhood and education.

As an adult and an educator, I am realizing how fortunate I am that I have visited a number of world class museums. For many of the images I show students, I can relate stories of seeing the actual work or a work by that artist. I tell students about the smell of the museum, waiting in line for tickets or general anecdotes about my experiences.

Sadly, many (if not most) of my students have never experienced a world class museum in person. They have no real connection to the art they see in textbooks or in prints.

But yesterday, a little of this changed with the use of Google Cultural Institute!!!  Google Cultural Institute is a virtual museum where you can see the masterpieces of all time in high resolution photos. You can zoom in and actually see the brush strokes!

Even better, you can virutally visit museums! My students LOVED "walking" the halls of the Musee' d'Orsay in Paris and I loved telling them about my visit many years ago.  Or how about the Museu de Arte Moderna de Sao Paulo and see the work of my favorite working artist Beatrix Milhazes.

Check out Google Cultural Institute for yourself and if you want, you can take a look at a couple of my galleries that I've made.

I created one for the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.
http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/user-gallery-edit/kimbell-favorites-mcl/iwKy4D1Se6LdJA

and one for Geometric Abstract art
http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/user-gallery-edit/geometric-art-mcl/agJyvbsZsL8dLA

But a word of caution... you are going to want to travel to see these in person!! So get your passport ready!

Estate Sale Finds

I love estate sales, garage sales and auctions! You just never know what you are going to find! On Saturday, Doug and I walked a couple of blocks from our house to an estate auction. It was at a house I was longing to see but knew I wasn't going to get to see because 1) it was like 3 times more expensive than my house 2) I'm not allowed to look at houses (yet) since we have only lived in ours for 7 months.

Anyway.. The house was a Brady Bunch time capsule! Incredible! The owner was a doctor and the wife an artist. You can imagine the finds! 

I got some cool stuff for my classroom.. 

Like an unfinished clay bust. The wife died before she finished it. 

 

And some cool body parts! My students will love drawing those!

 

Marbles

 

And some artwork. Now some people are looking to make money in art work at estate sales. Not me, I only buy pieces I like. If one day they turn out to be worth something, great. But I'm not buying a piece unless I want it for myself!

I love this piece. I tried to find the artist, but no luck. There is a current artist named Pam Nichols, but given the age of these people and when the other pieces were purchased/made in their house, I think this piece had to be pressed in the 60's to early 80's. I think this piece is going in my bedroom, or the living room. Nice neutral palette with lots of texture.

We also got a Picasso print. You can see the aging. I personally like the faded print more than the original colors of red and yellow. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this one. 

The last two pieces I can't tell who painted them. The night scene is fairly large and we are going to rematt it and hang it at Doug's office. It is a fabulous piece! 

 

And this one is small, maybe 8x10. I love the loose buildings. I think it's on craft paper or a paper bag!

 

If you have ever seen pieces like these and know who "Betty" ?? Is, I'd love to see more of her? Work!

And those are our "treasures!"