French Soul Food and Scottish Art

Like the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, "The hurrier I go, the behinder I get!"  I can't believe it is the last day of May already, so get ready for some catching up posts here on the Bloomin' Words blog!
 
Ash's birthday was in April so we celebrated her special day on Easter this year. Ash, her boyfriend Rob, Lys, and I all met up at Brenda's French Soul Food Restaurant in downtown San Francisco for Easter brunch!

Despite it's modest appearance and the line to get in, the food was delicious and worth the wait! I had the french toast with butter-pecan sauce. We all indulged in apple filled and chocolate filled beignets! Yummy!

Photos from Brenda's French Soul Food Facebook site.

Then it was on to Golden Gate Park to take in the Botticelli to Braque exhibit at the De Young Museum! We all love art and strolling through museums on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Featured were masterpieces from Scotland including works from Rembrandt, Botticelli, Raeburn, Monet, Picasso, and Braque, among others.  We all looked for the rainbow in the painting of Niagra Falls by Church...

 Many of us recognize Skating on Duddingston Loch by Raeburn...

 

I'm fond of Monet and have several framed prints of his in my home...

 

After reviving ourselves with refreshments in the museum cafe, we took the elevator up into Hamon Observation Tower for a view of the city. The floor to ceiling windows offer beautiful vistas.

 View of the Living Roof at the California Academy of Sciences...

 and a peek of the Pacific...

 It's always fun to figure out where familiar places are on the huge map on display...

It was a lovely birthday for my daughter and a lovely Easter.

Georgia O'Keeffe Exhibit

Lys's birthday was earlier this month so I spent the weekend in San Francisco to celebrate.  We had a wonderful time!  We started with lunch Saturday at a Burmese Restaurant.  It was nothing special on the outside, but the 30 minute wait was an indication of how tasty the food would be inside. From there we went to Golden Gate Park to the de Young Museum to see the Georgia O'Keeffe exhibit.  

O'Keeffe is one of Lys's favorite artists and we all embraced her work, from large blooms to haunting trees...

Throughout the exhibit there were quotes painted on the walls and in small displays, many by her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz.  One of my favorite quotes of his is:

"The great geniuses are those who have kept their childlike spirit 

and have added to it breadth of vision and experience.” – Alfred Stieglitz 

Learning about Stieglitz' work piqued my interest in learning more about his work as well.  

It had rained off and on that week, providing a tremendous relief for the California drought, though the warm, dry weather since proved it to only be a drop in the bucket.  The skies were already clearing when we emerged from the museum.  

We made our way across town toward Fisherman's Wharf and Ghiradelli Square for hot fudge sundaes.

The greatest part of the day was reveling in the growth and beauty of my daughters.  Celebrating a birthday makes a parent naturally reflect on all the years since the child came into the world, all the smiles and fun times, all the tough times and disappointments, the trial and error times, the jump for joy successes, the disagreements and the embraces, and most of all the love.  It's all about love!  I'm so proud of the woman my daughter Lys has become.  Happy Birthday, my dear!

Enjoying Art

I love good art. I could wander through the Louvre in Paris for hours. So when I saw a PBS special about a very special exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, I called my daughters and said, "Let's go!" Since we had last Friday off work, I drove up to the City and after lunch we went over to Golden Gate Park's de Young Museum. Here we could see canvases touched by the paint brushes of Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Monet, and others. Prints of the actual masterpieces never do them justice.

The exhibit summary says it all:

"The second of two exhibitions from the Musée d’Orsay’s permanent collection, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay follows on the heels of the first with a selection of the most famous late-Impressionist paintings by Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir, as well as works representing the individualist styles of the early modern masters, including Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, and the Nabis Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard.

"It is here where the Orsay’s collection shines brightest with masterpieces such as Van Gogh’s Starry Night over the Rhone, a haunting Portrait of the Artist, and Bedroom at Arles (on the left below).

The exhibition includes a superior collection of paintings from the Pont-Aven school, including Gauguin’s masterpiece Self-Portrait with The Yellow Christ (on the right above). The exhibition concludes with the Orsay’s spectacular collection of pointillist paintings, represented by the masters Georges Seurat and Paul Signac.

"The de Young is the only museum in North America to host the exhibition."

Here are a few of the beautiful paintings we enjoyed.

Van Gogh's Self PortraitStill Life with Onions by CezanneWomen at the Well by Signac

Starry Night Over the Rhone by Van GoghThe Snake Charmer by RousseauJoyousness by Gauguin

A Dance in the Country by Renoir

Of course, learning about the artists lives was fascinating, as well. We learned that the woman in Renoir's Dance in the Country painting became his wife! And, of course, there is the whole debate on whether Van Gogh cut off part of the lobe of his left ear or whether he lost part of the ear in a fight with friend Gauguin.

Photos courtesy of de Young Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.