Portals of color

My recent visit to the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk while visiting my brother continues to solidify my love one of my favorite museums.  

While I was there for Halloween, the volunteers all dressed in costume to match a painting in the gallery- what fun!  

This time though, my attention was not only on the old masters, but also on the wall colors.

Gone are the days of galleries with one or two muted colors in the space. 

I hope you enjoy looking through these rooms to the colors beyond and take away something about how the wall color enhances the works of art and draw you into the room.  Museum walls are getting more bold in color and I love it!

The last two, the brown and the green walls, are my favorite; they look so handsome and regal against the gold frames.

I've tried to summarize the various colors used (pretty much by guessing!) into these samples.

I know some of my friends ( Loi, Kim, Karena, Kerry) out there love galleries as much as I do, how about you?  Do you see a trend in color coming back on the walls in galleries?

A little glass blowing and update

The Chrysler Museum in Norfolk was a great place to experience some glass sculpture in a current show called Chihuly in the Garden and to partake in a glass blowing glass with my brother.  This is one of the activities on my bucket list.

All of the photos of me doing my glass 'float'  were taken on the wrong setting, so this gray version is all we have!

The molten glass tip was dipped in glass crystals.  I chose orange and white and created a swirl and dot effect.

You never know the final result until it totally cools about 2-3 days later.  So I do not yet know how it came out! My brother has to go pick them up this week at the studio.

 These are the vessels of glass dust that we had to choose from:

 Here is my brother's 'float' pre-cooling.  He chose blue and yellow glass.

Glass blowing 101 involved us blowing in a tube while the experienced artist handled the operation.  I was fully prepared to get down and dirty and really had no idea our participation was so minimal.  Guess I'll have to take more classes so I can get into it more!  Bob has taken about 4 classes and still has to work under an assistant.

It really is addictive and I can't wait to do more.  There is so much to learn and no two pieces are ever alike; I love that!

The Chihuly exhibit was very small and just encompassed a small outdoor garden, but any Chihuly is great to see in person!

Have you ever tried glass blowing?  

P.S. He just mailed me some photos of our 'floats' so here is an update on my project.