Portrait in progress

I still have quite a lot to do on the dress, the cabinet, and the background, but this new portrait is coming along. I'd say I'm 3/4 of the way there. The face at least is finished. Photo taken at an angle unfortunately... (click above photo to enlarge, and click again to zoom)

The ToonSeum

The ToonSeum, Pittsburgh's museum of cartoon art, is opening at its new Downtown location at 10 a.m. Saturday. The museum, which formerly was housed in the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh in the North Side, will feature new exhibits every two to three months.

The first exhibit will be "Enchanted Drawings: A Century of Animation" which will include an original production sketch of the first animated character, Gertie the Dinosaur by Winsor McCay. In the film, Gertie causes trouble and cries when she is scolded, and finally she gives McCay himself a ride on her back as he steps into the movie picture.

Gertie is a very cute dino. Dippy (Carnegie Museum of Natural History's Diplodocus dinosaur mascot) would love her.

http://www.toonseum.org/

Museum With A View

Located in the Centre Pompidou, the Musée National d'Art Moderne is the national museum for modern art of France. It has a huge collection of approximately 50,000 works of art spanning the movements of cubism, surrealism, and pop art. The Centre Pompidou is designed in the style of "high tech artchitecture" (looking like a Willy Wonka fun factory), and offers amazing views of Paris. Here are some snapshots from the top:

A view of Montmartre and the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur (Basilica of the Sacred Heart),

the Eiffel Tower in the distance,

and the towers of Notre Dame.

Monet at the Orangerie

At the Orangerie in Paris, we saw the most beautiful display of Claude Monet's Waterlilies. The paintings curved around several oval rooms, sanctuaries of color.

The Louvre

There are two works of art at the Louvre that are so incredibly famous, that when I saw them in person, I got the sensation of meeting a celebtrity. Both are women-- Mona Lisa, and the Venus de Milo.

Lonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa hangs behind a shield of bullet-proof glass that is continually reflecting the flash of cameras. Her fame turns average museum-goers into an eager mob of paparazzi.

The Venus de Milo stands at the end of a long hall, and as you approach her, your heart beats faster with every step. Her base raises her above the heads of museum-goers vying for a full-length view to take a picture, and she is luminous, framed perfectly by an arched doorway.

With such celebrities, it is no wonder that the Louvre is the most visited museum in the world.

Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Madeleine in the Bois d'Amour by Emile Bernard at the Musée d'Orsay (above)

Across the chunnel, the first museum we saw in Paris was the Musée d'Orsay, one of my favorite museums. The museum is built in a former railway station, originally built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900. It is the perfect environment for the world's largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings and other great masterpieces. Colors seem to dance off the walls here.

Saatchi Gallery

The last art gallery we visited in London was the Saatchi Gallery, a quite exciting contemporary art gallery.

There was a group show of young American artists called Abstract America : New Painting and Sculpture. Our favorite piece was this large iron staircase ring leaned up against a wall like a three-dimensional Escher:

Spiral Stair by Peter Coffin