National Gallery of Art Exhibits

We hadn’t been to the national gallery of art for quite a while. And as is usually the case it’s a great place for taking photos for the weekly challenge. And that’s why we were there most recently. The east building just reopened after an extensive skylight renovation. The front door was restored to the original site and the building looked remarkable. Since we were there last a couple of new exhibits were available to visit. One of them was called “doubles.” My main purpose was to get a “silhouette” image, but along the way we walked through and admired some of the Art that was on display. At the time I can’t say we were very impressed with what we saw, but looking back in the images it was a bit quirky. For a lot of people - myself included - love the impressionists are located in the west building. We always manage to find our way there. One thing for sure it’s nice to know all of this is just a short drive from home. And it makes for a delightful morning walk. 

National Gallery of Art Exhibit

We hadn’t been to the National Gallery of Art for quite some time. When it is very hot outside the air conditioned space is a great reprieve. Additionally the east building just reopened after many months of renovation to the skylights. And on a brilliant sunny day the results were obvious! With the reopening came a couple of new exhibits. One of them was “The Woman in White.” As usual the main reason for our going to the art museum was to find some options for the weekly photo challenge I participate in. But along the way we stopped by the exhibit. We didn’t spend enough time in it and breezed through quickly. That means that we will need to return again. Lucky for us that is always an easy option. Just get in the car, drive for about 20-25 minutes, park on the national mall, and walk over. When we lived on Capitol Hill it was a lot easier, but at least everything is still quite accessible to us now that we live in northern Virginia. And it makes for a lovely morning walk. 

Club Quarters Hotel Napolean Instagram Photo

I post several photos every day on Instagram and have been doing that for several years. I always liked taking photos of everything DC when we lived on Capitol Hill. But I also liked to add photos of my digital art pet portraits. For the last year I’ve been taking pictures for the 52Frames weekly photo challenge so I’ve been posting the options that I plan to use to see which images get the most attention. A few months back I took a photo of my husband standing in front of Napolean’s portrait at the National Gallery of Art. Club Quarters Hotel requested to use the photo on their Instagram account. It’s a hotel in DC and I approved them using it. Last week I got a message that the photo was actually posted to the CQ instagram account. It was kinda funny to see that it was actually used. It’s probably one of my favorites from the NGA. I wanted to use it for the 52Frames challenge a couple of times, but another image won out. We will probably have the opportunity to do it again. Since the photo needs to be taken the week of the challenge, you can’t use something that was taken before that. It’s always a nice ride in to town and we have become very familiar with the art gallery this year. Having the image on the hotel’s site was a plus. I just looked to see that the photo has garnered 679 likes - quite impressive! 

National Gallery of Art Other Gems

To change up our usual morning walk routine in the neighborhood we went to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum and the National Gallery if Art. We were being tourists this week and both venues were quite different, as one can imagine! Although the wax figures first came about the same time as some of the artists, what a difference in product after more than a hundred years plus! One is quite “cheesy” and the other is a cultural experience. I suppose your experience depends on which state of mind you find yourself! I took so many photos at each place, but twice as many at the National Gallery. I like to focus on the detail in the non portrait scenes. It’s curious to see how oils and the artist ability bring the finer things to life. If you prefer the wax figures, please check my blog from Tuesday. Otherwise, these are the items that caught my eye after after we spent a little time in the Cézanne exhibit. If it gets a bit cooler we will go back to the Hirshorn, then maybe the Portrait Gallery and the Renwick. It’s a great way to spend the late morning. We couldn’t do that when we lived in the Midwest and probably not anywhere else we may eventually end up. 

National Gallery of Art

Yesterday we took our morning walk to the National Gallery of Art passing by a very loud fireworks safety display on the National Mall. We wanted to see the Cézanne Exhibit - and we did. But before we went for lunch in the cafeteria by the waterfall on the concourse level, we strolled around a few other galleries until we were visually overloaded! Probably for most people the French impressionist paintings are most loved (?) - or maybe I feel that way because I am drawn to them the most. Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Renoir, Lautrec, Degas, Matisse, Pissarro, Bazille, Seurat, and many more we all on display. I recognized the Mary Cassatt as we passed through the American gallery. I’ve always liked watercolors and pastels, but never used oil paints. Now everything I do is hand painted digital art on my iPad. I was never really an art student per se - didn’t study it nor visit a lot of art galleries growing up. So when the new exhibits come to town it’s a good excuse to pay a visit. I particularly like to focus and zone in on parts of the scene rather than the whole to observe the detail and animation it represents. It’s nice to be able to just walk on over from our house. Washington DC is an interesting place to live, and this is one of the reasons.