For Real?

Last week, while my guests were shopping in Laguna Beach, I excused myself and went to the Laguna Art Museum.

It had been a while since I was there and the galleries looked completely different. Last time there were some modern art exhibits on show but most of the wall space was taken up with early California Impressionism works with a contemporary watercolour artist showing on the upper level.

This time it was largely modern art with a serious dose of whimsey.

My favourite show was called 'Faux Real' in which things are not always what they seem to be.

These vases were pictures of vases.

Usually photography is not allowed in museums in order to protect the copyright of the artists or the people/institutions who own the art. For this exhibition there was a sign saying that photography was not only allowed but even encouraged.

All the items on this table were made of fabric.

Cloth art supplies.

This was a very large cupcake that you could climb into through a door (seen on the right).

Road Trip 6

This is the final post about my recent road trip. This post backtracks a little and deals with a reoccurring site we saw on the coastal portion, California Missions.

Read about the California Missions here and here.

Because of our schedule, we weren't always able to go into the Mission because we arrived outside of their visiting hours. However sometime we could get pictures of the gardens through the locked gates.

Mission San Jose de Guadalupe.

Mission Santa Cruz.

Mission San Juan Bautisa.

Father Serra who founded many of the missions.

Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo.

Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa.

Mission La Purisima Concepcion de Maria Santisima.

Displays showing how the rooms would have looked during the Mission era.

Adobe bricks.

How the bricks are made.

MIssion Santa Barbara.

Chalk artwork in front of the church.

Father Serra again.

Distance to the next missions.

Mission San Buenaventura.

For a review of my visit to Mission San Juan Capistrano see here and here.

Day Tripper 1

Earlier this week, Hubby and I decided to enjoy a day out in San Diego looking at art.
It was the first truly warm day we've had for a while which was perfect since we went Balboa Park which has a collection of museums and parks all in a central location. Even so, we didn't get to see all we wanted to so another visit will be warranted sometime in the future.

We didn't have time to visit the Japanese Friendship Garden but this is a view from above.

Several of the buildings had these covered walks which had a graceful, serene feeling to them. Perhaps because it wasn't crowded.

Our first step was the Mingei International Museum.

The Mingei had an exhibition on musical instruments. One of my favourite was the Moon Guitar from China on the far left.

I'm not a great lover of models but I really liked this. Very creative and a lot of work.

These are batik tiles. Objects used for decorating can also be used as a decoration. Again it took a lot of work to make each of these intricate tiles.

This sculpture is outside one of the entrances to the Mingei. 

One the way to the next museum we passed through the Alcazar Garden. I love the sound of water in a garden.

Even a bathroom break affords a chance to see decorative design as in this tiled floor.

More next time...