This weekend has been a weekend filled with art and other good things. I don't remember if I mentioned this earlier but I've been wanting to get out and actually see things that I've thought would be cool to go and see or do, some of these things have been on the to do list for ages and I did some this weekend. On Friday I went to see a gallery/museum that I'd recently heard about and which seemed to have quite a nice collection of art. I hadn't expected to need to pay to get in but I went on in anyway and was happily surprised when the lady at the desk let me in for the student price even though I'm not a student and informed her of such. Other than the employees I had the place to myself and enjoyed a ramble through the building, which is pretty cool in it's own right, looking at art from the 17th and 18th centuries, maybe the 19th, I didn't really pay attention to that. I happily looked on prints by Rembrandt and Albrecht Durer and paintings by several other artists who are not really known to me. I was especially drawn to the gallery by their claim of having works by Carl Bloch, I did see wonderful prints and drawings by Bloch but was a bit disappointed to learn that their Bloch paintings were actually reproductions, as were a lot of their other pieces (I decided that they must make reproductions). Despite so many reproductions I felt that I'd seen enough to be worth my price of entry.
Friday evening I went to a few galleries participating in the local gallery stroll; as part of my goals for art I've been wanting to go to gallery stroll more and to see more of the local galleries. I went to two galleries and decided that the one was not one I would be interested in working with and the other I would be. It was good to get out and to see them though.
Saturday was the biggest art day this weekend. Two of my friends and I went to see the big Carl Bloch exhibit at the MOA, us and at least a hundred other people. I was really excited to see this exhibit, I'd heard it was wonderful and I admire Bloch, especially as I've been learning more about him and his work. Having so many other people there really made me appreciate how nice it is to be at a museum or gallery with a lot less people, it's quieter and you can view works better without fighting to see them. Anyway I really enjoyed the exhibit, they had several alter pieces that Block painted as well as many other paintings he did. It was interesting to talk to one of my friends after, she had had a very spiritual experience (as well she should because most of the works in the exhibit were religious, focusing on Christ) but for me, while I enjoyed the spiritual nature of the works I was viewing them more as an artist, in the presence of works that were so beautiful, I was analyzing how and why they were so beautiful, composition etc.
I hope that I can have more weekends like this.