Rhapsodies

One of the many selling points of the exhibit.

I finally got around to seeing the Settle Art Museum’s “intimate Impressionism” exhibit as something to do for two hours while waiting for another event (it was something I wanted to do, honest) Anyway when I got there the place was packed. This meant I planned to do the initial scan of the exhibit and then come back on a nice quiet weekday to take it all in at my leisure, preferably with a magnifying glass.

Still the whole thing just blew me away. I recognized a lot of the pieces either from the few times I went to the national gallery or from textbooks, but still this was amazing. Lately I’ve found myself drawn more and more to the “craft” of art and the brush technique of a lot of these paintings were amazing making me really wanting to stare at each painting for fifteen minutes. Looking at what some of what some of these artists did to get definition in white dresses not to mention showing slight with single brushstrokes.

I found myself falling in love with Renoir all over again, especially in one of his paintings, The Mussel Harvest 1879, where he does some absolutely fascinating things mixing greens and purples which briefly had me thinking about painted opals.

Ultimately I left far earlier than I would I have liked but honestly the place was that crowded. While I obviously don’t begrudge people the privilege of seeing art I really can’t get into my zone if there’s more than five people in a gallery. Besides my other event was about to happen.

By that I mean that Big John’s PFI, one of Seattle’s best kept culinary secrets,was having it’s annual food and wine tastings. This can not be missed since everything that Big John’s has from salami, the best selection of cheeses in the city, meatballs, stuffed tomatoes, Italian  wines, cookies… all to the accompaniment of a guy playing old standbys like “That’s amore” and “Oh Marie” I left feeling quite full.

So all in all a pleasant afternoon and evening. (with the small exception of avoiding crashing on the Burke-Gilman on the way home when I got a face full of wet tree branch in my face.(Don’t worry, it had leaves.)