More Winter Roses

 

On a recent walk, I found a house that had an abundance of rose bushes in their front garden.  These roses look like they are loving the recent cooler weather.  They appear to be thriving.

It was great to see all these gorgeous blooms in one spot.  

A Spot of Color

 

When I was at the Heard Museum last weekend, I checked out the planters in the courtyard to see if there were any winter blooms.  I found one nasturtium bloom looking very sunny and peeking out from the green leaves around it.

Such a pretty flower.

In another planter, I found this tall bloom full of small white flowers.  

The internet says it's a Candle Larkspur.  It kind of looks like a tall, pillar candle.  

It was pretty chilly (by desert standards) all last week but these flowers seemed to be enjoying the cool weather.

Houses with Views

 

I recently photographed a couple of very nice houses. This one is painted white making it stand out from the desert scenery all around it.  The house sits in the Camelback Mountain foothills with the rugged mountain terrain behind it.

This house was found at the top of a hilly area in Paradise Valley with the Phoenix Mountain Preserve in the background.  Both houses have some dramatic scenery around them.  

Butterflies from the "Heardlings"

 

When I was at the Heard Museum last Saturday, they told us about a children's project they had been working on with the many children who visit the museum. They lovingly call those young visitors "Heardlings".  

Children create these little colorful butterflies and write messages on them and museum staff place them on the walls in the Grand Hall.

I think there might be some budding artists among those children.  A few of the butterflies had some original designs on them.

What a great project for the children and it compliments the Meryl McMaster exhibit just a few steps away.  I posted about the Meryl McMaster exhibit here and here. 

Blocking the Road

 

I found this mural on the side of a newly established Pizza restaurant in Scottsdale.  I like the colors and the southwestern theme but it appears to me that those two cars are blocking the road.  They need to turn around head down that road.

Taking part in Monday Murals.

Back at the Heard Museum

 

I was back at the Heard Museum yesterday for another one of their "Artful Mornings" lectures so I took the opportunity to visit that wonderful "Space Makers" exhibit once again.  I posted about this exhibit last November here and here.  

It was a pleasure to see these colorful and wildly different works of art once more.

I thought I'd post two more pieces that I didn't feature back in November.  This one is called "Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow" and was painted by Mary Morez.

And this one is painted by Will Barnet and is called "Family & Pink Table.  It dates back to 1948.

Local Art

 

I mentioned several years ago that my good friend Julie  serves on the Paradise Valley Town Council.  On Thursday evening I attended the swearing-in ceremony for newly elected or in Julie's case, reelected to serve.  The town's council chamber was covered with paintings by a local artist named Barbara Lacey.  They were all so colorfully painted with such bright colors.  This one is called "Canyon Sunset".

Next to the painting was this bronze sculpture of Barry Goldwater.  That seems appropriate since Senator Goldwater lived in Paradise Valley all of his life.  This sculpture is by Joe Beeler.

Frida in Tile

 

During that time between Christmas and the new year, a friend and I drove out to the far northern reaches of Scottsdale and had lunch at the Four Seasons Resort.  That's where I saw this mural of Frida Kahlo made of tiles and mounted on a wall near the entrance to the restaurant.  I'm not quite sure if the tiles were painted before they were assembled on the wall or after.  Whichever it is still a nice mural. 

I also snapped a photo of the hotel's Christmas tree in the middle of the lobby.  I'm sure all these holiday decorations have been put away by now.  

The Large and The Small

 

I've mentioned before that I've been doing a lot of photo sorting and filing and sometimes scanning of old prints.  This is a perfect example of a very old photo that I recently scanned so I could add it to my digital collections.  At the time this photo was taken, the family dog was Brandy, a very friendly  and well loved St. Bernard.  We also had a new kitten named Smokey.  I found this photo I took of Brandy and Smokey getting to know each other.  They quickly became good friends.  This photo brought back lots of very fond memories.  Brandy might have bee a big dog but, he was certainly a gentle giant.  

Nature's Art

 

After my visit to "Knight Rise" (see yesterday's post), I walked that same narrow path back to the main part of the museum.  Along the way, I saw these little yellow flowers growing under the glass partition.  I thought it had a its own artistic look.

There was also an ocotillo plant and a cactus on the other side of the walkway and pushing through all those thorns were a few lantana blooms.  I thought that was another little natural artistic scene.

Whenever I visit contemporary art, I find myself seeing little artistic scenes everywhere I look.

Knight Rise

 

While I was at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, I took the opportunity to visit James Turrell's sculpture called Knight Rise.    

It can only be accessed through the museum even though it's on the outside.  Guests follow the little partially enclosed walkway I've pictured to the left to get to it.

Once there, I stepped into the circular space, sat down and enjoyed the view of the sky through the opening above.  The sky was look a bit 'lacy' on this day.

Knight Rise is one of many Skyspaces that Turrell has created all over the world.

Brains and Beauty

 

Thought Patterns by Monica Aissa Martinez

I went to see a fascinating art exhibit at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.  I actually heard about this exhibit on the PBS Newshour earlier last month and I wanted to see it before it leaves on January 19th.  The full title of the exhibit is "Brains & Beauty: At the Intersection of Art and Neuroscience".  

Red Mask by Rufino Tamayo

The exhibit used a series of artworks to emphasize how different things about a piece activates the aesthetic triad referring to sensory-motor, emotion-valuation and knowledge-meaning neural systems.  In the painting above our visual cortex takes in the color.  Our eyes can detect more than 10 million colors. The color red is especially effective in stimulating our brains in different ways.

There were two places in the show where the viewer interacts with a piece that contains cameras.  The one above is a camera that distorts what it is seeing into fragmented pieces but I could still make out me, taking a photo of me. The other piece used two cameras on each side of a person showing a split screen version of me from angles that I cannot see in a normal mirror. 

It was a fascinating exhibit that gave me lots and lots to think about.  I love viewing art and I think this exhibit might enhance the way I look at different pieces of art.  I might end up staring at different pieces even longer than I do now.

Beauty & Sunlight to Start the Year

 

I have a few more photos from our New Year's Day brunch at The Hermosa Inn.  Above is the main fountain in front of the entrance to the resort.  

My friend Julie captured this close-up shot of the two goldfinches on top of the fountain.

They have made some nice changes to the garden area where weddings and other events are sometimes held.  I like the new fountain and the stone bridge.  

We found this relaxing spot near where the rose garden was located.  What do you think, a game of chess or just a lie down in the hammock?

Here's a view of the Christmas tree located in the patio dining area.  

Enjoying the scenery at the resort was a very pleasant way to start the new year.

Winter Roses

 

After our brunch on Wednesday, we decided to walk around the grounds of The Hermosa Inn.  We found a spot that had several rose bushes with some of the prettiest roses in full bloom.

I haven't seen such perfect roses in a long time.  I couldn't resist a few photos.

These beauties appeared to be thriving in this part of the resort's grounds.  

They were so fragrant we could smell them from a few feet away.  

New Year's Day Brunch

 

My friends Julie and Glenda and I had a lovely New Year's Day brunch on Wednesday.  We were blessed with lovely weather allowing us to sit outside.

We were at Lon's at The Hermosa Inn for our little celebration.  I've featured this place a few times before.  We always try to have a meal here in the spring to see the abundance of flowers around the grounds.  It looks like they have an abundance of flowers in the winter too. 

Glass Tree

 

I hadn't made it to AZ88 before Christmas this year so since I was in the neighborhood on Tuesday, I stopped by to see this year's holiday decorations.  

I like the look of this tree made of glass.

I took a close-up so you could see that it's made of stacks of glass 'bricks'.  

They always have something clever and different during the holidays and for that matter throughout the year.  

Click on AZ88 label below and you will see quite a variety.

Theme Day: Photo of the Year

 

On the first day of the new year, City Daily Photo Bloggers always post their favorite photo from the previous year.  I chose this one that I took back in October at the Desert Botanical Garden.  

This is one of the "Light Bloom" sculptures that is part of recent exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden.  I posted more of these beauties back in October.

I'm waiting for the holiday crowds to thin out a bit before I go back to the garden at night to get some more "light bloom" shots.  They make such beautiful designs.  

To see other City Daily Photo Bloggers favorite photos, click here.  

Happy New Year!

The Elf on the Spire

 

I was driving north on Scottsdale Road on Sunday and spotted a flash of red on the tall Frank Lloyd Wright Spire that sits on this corner.  I was curious about what I was seeing so I turned the corner to get a closer look.

It appears that silly "Elf on the Shelf" has decided to climb the spire.  I don't recall ever seeing the spire decorated for the holidays before.  

Getting the full view of the elf was a bit challenging.  As you can see, the sun was shining on the other side.  This was the best I could do with the sun hiding behind the spire.

I posted the history of the spire back in 2013 and I snapped another photo of it back in March.

Unexpected Sunset Beauty

 

I stepped out of my kitchen in time to see the room filled with red light.  As I glanced toward the windows I saw a spectacular sunset happening.  I grabbed the camera and headed out to capture it.  We hadn't had any clouds earlier in the day so a cloud filled sunset was a bit unexpected. 

I turned around and looked in the opposite direction and could see how the glowing sunset was casting a pinkish glow all across the neighborhood.  I'm glad I saw this when I did.  It didn't last for very long.  

Old Westerns

 

I had lunch at a restaurant in Scottsdale that had a lot of old movie posters hanging on the wall.  These two were across from me.  As I looked at them I wondered who in the world was Hoot Gibson and for that matter, who was Buck Jones.

Hoot Gibson: Edmund Richard "Hoot" Gibson (1892 - 1962) was an American rodeo champion, film actor, film director and film producer.  While acting and stunt work began as a  sideline to Gibson's focus on rodeo, he successfully transitioned from silent films to become a leading performer in Hollywood's growing cowboy film industry.

Buck Jones: born Charles Frederick Gebhart (1891-1942) was an American actor known for his work in many popular Western movies.  In his early film appearances he was credited as Charles Jones.  He joined Hoot Gibson and Tom Mix as one of the top cowboy actors of the day.

A little internet searching and now I know who they were.

Wave Goodbye to Santa

 

Santa appeared to be waving goodbye to everyone at Uptown Plaza yesterday. I hadn't been to Uptown Plaza in quite a while so I missed this holiday decoration.  I'm glad I saw him before he rounded up those reindeer and flew away.

Two Beauties

 

When I was at the Arizona Biltmore a few days ago, I saw these two sitting with their people around the outdoor bar.  I just had to go over and say hello.  What a couple of sweeties they are.  

When I was just a kid, our family dog was an English Bulldog and she was the sweetest dog with a great personality.  Some people find them rather scary looking and stay away but nothing could be further from the truth.  They have a very friendly disposition.  It was a joy to meet these two.  To me, they are beautiful.  

Dinner With Friends

 I enjoyed a simply wonderful Christmas Eve dinner with lots of friends.  My friends David and Riley hosted.  If you've followed my site over the years, you'll remember that David is masterful at setting a beautiful table. And, Riley is a masterful cook so that is a great combination.

On Christmas Day I had dinner with my friends Julie and Dave at their house where this miniature Santa Clause greeted me.

We had drinks by the fire pit and then a lovely dinner and after dinner we played a few rounds of Trivial Pursuit.  It was a super fun day.