Art IS everywhere in New Castle County, too!!!

Love's Messenger in Brandywine Park

I confess it took us two tries to see all of the pop-up art in New Castle County (a continuation of our Delaware pop-up journey is chronicled in the blog Art is everywhere in Kent and Sussex County), but we had two absolutely gorgeous days in which to view the sights.


The first trip was in the late afternoon – starting from Newark and seeking endlessly on the green (or mall, if you call it that) and discovering John Sloan’s Spring Rain was really on Main Street – mounted on a brick dormitory wall. Not only was it confusing to locate, but I realized that as a Newark resident, I had driven by the outdoor art many times since it was posted.

Then a quick trip to New Castle to see Edward Moran’s Standing Out – a mighty war ship poised in front of the Court House Museum, where you can see the Delaware River flowing just down the street and imagine the ship sailing on it. Right beside the picture, one of our favorite Sunday Coop Market veggie vendors was letting his great display of eggplant, apples and okra lure people in. One of us yielded to the apples.

A trip to Crabby Dick’s let us see Dante Gabriel Rosetti’s Lady Lilith taught me about the first wife of Adam, Lilith. That was not anything I had remembered from Sunday school. Of course, after posing with beautiful Lilith, we just had to have supper at Crabby Dick’s – indoors looking out the window towards Pea Patch Island. Thus endeth our first New Castle County pop-up run.

The second trip was also a beautiful day. We met at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts where we had just been to a concert. Walking from the DCCA to the Riverfront took us directly to Howard Pyle’s Attack on a galleon which had itself been attacked – robbed of its sign! We penciled in the proper title for the record and sped off to the Grand Opera House to see Romeo and Juliet by Ford Maddox Brown where we found a young family looking at Tom Maloney’s great statue. We began to stare at the painting and had a great discussion with the family.

Two more stops: the Jasper Crane Rose Garden in Brandywine Park had Love’s Messenger by Marie Spartali Spillman. The painting has a beautiful Pre-Raphaelite model feeding a pigeon and looking towards a river through a window and the Brandywine flowed right behind the picture’s window. Beautiful weather, roses, art, sigh.

When we sought out Howard Pyle’s Marooned, we were surprised that we had to go into the pub and onto their terrace to actually see the work, which is large and quite striking. But somehow, placing a large work between tables and umbrellas on a pub terrace seemed strange.

Milking Time at the Woodside Farm Creamery

Afterwards, we set off for Hockessin to see the very last work on our list: Milking Time by Winslow Homer which was placed on the wall of a barn at the Woodside Creamery. The milkmaid and the farm boy fit in so seamlessly with the cows and barn and fields that one could imagine Mr. Homer painting it after being inspired by Woodside Farm ice cream. We, too, celebrated the completion of our pop-art art tour with a generous serving.

Please do this again, Delaware Art Museum!

 

See www.delart.org.

Art IS everywhere in Sussex and Kent County

Abbot Handerson Thayer's The old lion in front of
 the Georgetown Public Library

Last weekend we decided to go to a restaurant on the C& D Canal and enjoy dining while the sun set on a fantastic view of the railroad bridge and a beautifully maintained marina. When we arrived at Aqua Sol, we saw an full-size reproduction of Howard Pyle’s Flying Dutchman which he had created for Collier’s Weekly in 1900. What fun to find one of the centennial works reproduced out in the woods near Lums Pond!!! We asked our waitress about the painting and she brought us a brochure from the Delaware Art Museum with a map and addresses of all fifteen works placed in various outdoor locations throughout the state. We vowed to see them all.

This past Saturday we headed for the beach to catch Edward Hopper’s Summertime which the Lewes Historical Society had placed at the entrance to the charming Lewes Farmers’ Market which is on Shipcarpenter Square – surrounded by some very old historic buildings. Then we headed to see friends near Angola and took off in the late afternoon for Rehoboth to see Howard Pyle’s Buccaneer in front of the Rehoboth Library. A quick coffee and we headed for the opulent Georgetown Public Library (built by the millionaire who owns the development we had just visited in Long Neck) where we saw Abbott Handerson Thayer’s The old lion. Thayer was a naturalist who wrote about the protective coloration of animals. His conclusions are now referred to as Thayer’s law and he is considered one of the theorists behind camouflage dress.


Rain began to fall copiously as we made our way to Milford’s Mispillion Art League to see our third Howard Pyle, The Mermaid, which was posted on the white wall of the Art League, with the darkening sky and stormy raindrops falling on it as we stopped to mug in front of it for a cell phone group picture.

Howard Pyle's Mermaid in Milford

After a snack in Milford – we hit the road again to start the Kent County tour. Absalom Jones by Raphaelle Peale, was standing alone behind a few orange construction barrels in the dark and rain. My friend positioned her car so that we could have light on the painting and we celebrated our fifth pop-up of the day before moving on to Smyrna. By the time we reached the parking lot of the Smyrna Opera House, the rain was pouring down and we drove as close as we could to Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Veronica Veronese, snapping shots on the cell phone.

The chase of art was a delightful way of touring and appreciating our neatly compact state and we spent a long time wondering how the Delaware Art Museum planned this fantastic campaign – how they chose the works and the placements. I shall report again as we finish our pop-up tour of New Castle County.

See www.delart.org