Outside of studying I clocked up my Museum hours. I became a member at the “Met” and going once a week gave me a chance to visit one room at a time and enjoy the place without being overwhelmed. I spent most of my time looking at Sargeant, Winslow Homer, Hopper and their massive impressionist collection. They also have a beautiful Ilya Repin, which gave me a taste of what was to come in Russia.
I also had a side-trip to Washington. So many Museums – where do I start? Stand-outs for me was visting the Freer Gallery of Art and seeing Whistler and at the National Gallery of Art Winslow Homer’s Right and Left really inspired me. They also have an incredible collection of Degas, some of which I had never seen reproduced before.
I spent lots of time working on my own work. I was dealing with the constant struggle of feeling like I could spent the rest of my life working on realist ‘academic’ accuracy, or experimentation with technique, colour, composition and different mediums. I enjoy artists at both ends of the spectrum like Sergeant on one end for his incredible tonal realism and at the other end Edouard Vuillard for his amazing sense of design and composition. It makes it hard to know where I want my own work to be.
I also had a great time catching up with friends, enjoyed running in Central Park to work off the cheeseburger addiction and was very sad to leave. We had Christmas in Mexico with family, and tried to escape the cold briefly. Really enjoyed the food and the culture, the only down-side being an unfortunate bag-knapping incident in Oaxaca that left us passport and camara-less.
