you will want to see these - special exhibits in California museums

note:  this post updated 12/29/11 Lockwood DeForest at Palm Springs Art Museum , exhibit info listed below.

">Slideshow, California Artists at the Laguna Art Museum

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The South:

update:  Lockwood DeForest at the Palm Springs Art Museum  - approximately 60 paintings from Lockwood DeForest at the Museum, in two subjects:  American and Western landscapes, and around 20 paintings of Palm Springs area plein air paintings.  Lockwood DeForest paints in a way that you're transported to a dreamier version of the landscape ... so locations like the Nile River, the desert and nocturne (nighttime) settings are beautifully portrayed.

I'm so so very much looking forward to seeing these, I've only seen around a dozen before.  Open now (late December) thru April 8th, 2012.

Coincidental fusion thing between landscape architecture, horticulture and art:  There is a beautiful rosemary plant variety named 'Lockwood DeForest'.   The dark green rosemary with violet blooms is well named.

 'Fiery Moon Coloreded by Clouds', Lockwood DeForest

Lockwood DeForest at Palm Springs Art Museum

The South, continued:
This exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Art  features the Spanish Masters.  I'm not a huge fan of Miro or El Greco (so tragic!!) but here's the lure:  Joaquin Bastida y Sorolla.  I don't know how many works on display but the writeup sounds very good.

Closes Nov. 6th!

Further north on the Coast:  The California artists from the late 19th Century - early 20th Century.  Includes works from the permanent collection (maybe not so special if you've seen them but this makes my mouth water and I want to see this!)  Delicious: Mischa Askenazy, Franz Bischoff, Carl Oscar Borg, Maurice Braun, Benjamin C. Brown, Frank Cuprien, William Swift Daniell, Edwin Deakin, Anna Hills, Thomas Hunt, Martin Jackson, Edgar Payne, Hanson Puthuff, Julian Rix, F. Carl Schmidt, Jack Wilkinson Smith, Gardner Symons, and William Wendt.

If you have Ruth Lilly Westphals' books Plein Air Painters of California the North, or the South, you'll want to see the exhibit.  The only artist I see missing is E. Charlton Fortune . . .  really love her work.

At the Laguna Art Museum  . . . or see the slideshow at top of this post.

On display:  October 24, 2011-April 29, 2012

by Edgar Payne

Northern California (very near to me!) :  Crocker Art Museum  Presents National Retrospective Debut
of Landscape Artist Edgar Payne - - -"Edgar Payne: The Scenic Journey"

There is no information on the website as yet except for a press release(?)  If you're a member you may have received preview emails. . . ..note to self:  "join the Crocker".
  http://www.crockerartmuseum.org/about/news-room/press-releases/677-crocker-art-museum-presents-national-retrospective-debut-of-landscape-artist-edgar-payne

I sincerely hope the Crocker doesn't hang the exhibit in the same small room as the Franz Bischoff exhibit was displayed.  I appreciate good architecture and interior design that respects the user; the users are museum visitors . . . and the visitors in that room had a very hard time seeing the work.  The wall color for a portion of the Franz Bischoff exhibit was a deep Prussian Blue, perhaps inspired by one of the paintings however - - -the wallcolor sucked the light out of the room.  Compounding that problem, the lighting for all of the exhibit was really inadequate.  Dim.  The exhibit deserved some strong natural light, or enough illumination to see it.  Not a small dimly lit room where people were peering at the paintings and wishing for big flashlights.

On view February 11 through May 6, 2012 . . . I'm hoping for a good presentation for this exhibit