Touch of art!

Let me start by quoting what Art really means (Wiki) - Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. Traditionally, the term art was used to refer to any skill or mastery. Art is an act of expressing our feelings, thoughts, and observations.

Why this prelude, where am I going with this? Well, remember the fall foliage trip I was going to take towards Vermont? Well the tour kinda took an artsy detour to the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown. If you never been to this town, may I encourage you to do so? As the name says it all, it is a nice art museum in a beautiful location. All the art is a private collection of Sterling and Francine Clark.

I am not a painter so I always questioned how much would I appreciate the artist's efforts and the choices of colors used to attract his audience to all the intricate details etc. I always take Mona Lisa as my example, how many people look at the painting and know why it is so enigmatic. It took the world famous master Leonardo da Vinci in 1500s more than 4+ years to complete and even today it's the world famous painting.

Anyway, I don't want to distract you from the subject, The Clark institute. You will find the following attractions there:

1. Decorative Arts: Such as Pianoforte and Pair of Stools, Porcelain, Silver art pieces.
2. Art, Paintings & Drawings: (from 1400s) Such as Piero della Francesca, William Bouguereau (Check his Nymphs and Satyr), Lawrence Alma-Tadema (Check his The Woman of The Amphiss), Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Winslow Homer, Frederic Remington, Monet, Manet and many more to mention.
3. Photographs: So many ancient photography techniques such as Albumen, Collodion, Salt on Glass negatives. These days photography has become so digitized and omni present in cell phones and other places the real art of photography and invention is completely taken for granted. Read a little about the challenges and inventions from 1500s here so you can start to appreciate the level of knowledge they had with this art. Don't miss their exhibition show, Steps off the Beaten Path.
4. Japanese Arts: Take a nice walk thru the backyard trail to go to the Japanese arts museum, where you will find some Japanese Art pieces and paitings. Don't forget to go out on to the deck and see the breath taking fall colors if you happen to go there in fall season.

Even if you are not an artist and appreciate all the different aspects and intricacies of their efforts, you will still have a good time. What can I say, went to see just the fall colors and ended up experiencing a Touch of art!