Lisa McShane Art

My daughter and husband at MOMA A few days ago a journalist and professor listed her 5 favorite books of 2009 on Facebook. Fantastic idea. I jotted them down for my reading list and immediately began thinking about my 5 favorite paintings of 2009. This was a good year for art for me. I returned to painting full time, established and kept a fairly disciplined studio habit, and painted a number of paintings. I put together my website, this blog, an email and mail list, had a show and sold paintings. All good. I visited museums and saw great art. One of my painting professors (yes, the one who told me I had to paint 100 paintings) told me once that you have to see great art to make great art. She regularly flew to DC just to go to museums. That's inspiring! In February I went to New York and visited the Met (3 times!), the Cloisters, MOMA, the Guggenheim and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. In June I visited my daughter near DC and went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Barnes Founda...

Howard Finster. "God is Love. Seek his will and find his peace he saves from sin." After 1970. There is a wildly entertaining folk art collection at SAAM. It occurred to me seeing this that you can't really go wrong when you write your thoughts and your story on your paintings. I love it. It's deeply interesting to me and truly a people pleaser. One of my favorite contemporary painters is Stephen Hannock. I don't mean to imply that his remarkable works are like the Finster painting, but one of the qualities I love is that he embeds his personal story into his landscapes in the form of collage and writing. Two of his large landscapes are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and I'm fascinated with how I see my landscape differently after seeing the meaning he attributes to his. In a place where you've lived a portion of your life, each corner and every street is rich with memory.

In case you've wondered (I always have) how works of art are cared for, repaired and conserved, this is the place! They have lots of information on videos and you can see the conservation studios at work. The top photo is the painting studio where they restore paintings. In the lower photo you can see a repair in progress. See the sign that says 'Art Below' and 'Don't Move'? There's a painting weighted down. The Center even has a large interactive display in the hallway that discusses careers in art conservation. Perfect for kids who can always use more information about options and opportunities. After all, who knew at age 14 that people make a living repairing masterpieces? Next time you're in DC visit the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) w/ the Luce Center for art (thousands of paintings stuffed in glass cases - I love it that their storage area is open to nose around in), the Lunder Conservation Center, the Portrait Gallery and the SAAM.

Wayne Thiebaud. Levee Farms. 1996. The Smithsonian American Art Museum is a treasure and for us, a great find. We couldn't find much information about it ahead of time. Turns out it was closed for six years for renovation which is why it seems to have fallen off our radar screen. This painting is one of many wonders in their 20th century collection. My daughter took a picture of Joan Mitchell's Sunflowers painting for her cell phone screen saver. They also have a good collection of paintings from the Hudson River school and a nice room with Albert Ryder paintings. I was intrigued by this recent aerial landscape by Wayne Thiebaud. I'm working on a large aerial landscape of the Similkameen Valley in north central Washington right now and was interested to see Thiebaud's approach. His paintings of pastries, ice cream and other wondrous treats are well known. Personally I feel there aren't nearly enough cupcake paintings in the world. I love his work.