Lisa McShane Art

We spent a day in San Francisco visiting the SFMOMA, eating mussels and tarte tatin at a French restaurant (Le Charm, lovely) and going to galleries. San Francisco has a nice, dense cluster of galleries just north of the Museum of Modern Art, including many in one building, and we had a great time stopping by to see. Our last stop was the John Berggruen gallery . We walked up the stairs but the glass door leading to the gallery was closed. Fortunately a young man working there came, opened the door and said they were hanging a show but he guessed it would be all right if we looked around. Leaning against a wall nearby was a small Thiebaud painting. A recent one, dated 2009, of a box of chocolates. Heaven! Upstairs were 2 Diebenkorns (pictured above) a David Park painting and a Bischoff. More heaven! They were busy figuring out the hanging details so all the pieces were leaning against walls. It was bliss to squat down in front of these and look carefully at each one. This gallery stop ...

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.