First Friday in Portland

So tonight is First Friday in Portland. On the first Friday of every month, most of the art studios and galleries in the city open their new art exhibitions, or have open studios. The downtown area of Portland has many small art galleries and alternative arts venues, as well as buildings that house many floors of artist's studios. The openings go from 5 to 8 and the Portland Museum of Art is free from 5 to 9- all in all, it makes for a pretty happenin', inexpensive night on the town. (f.m.i.- http://www.firstfridayartwalk.com/ )


And now because I can't make a post without an image:

(Homer really captures the spirit of the Maine coast (talk about strong, assured brushwork!)
Winslow Homer
West Point, Prout's Neck, Maine
1900
Oil on canvas
30 1/4 x 48 1/4 in (76.8 x 122.6 cm)
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

...I tried to find a picture of "Weatherbeaten" which is owned by the P.M.A., but I could not find any quality images. It strikes me as a little odd that "public" institutions like museums would so jealously guard their reproductions- I can't imagine that they make that much off postcards.
Anyway the Portland Museum of Art has a very fine Homer landscape that is worth seeing in person. One can get a sense of a work from an image, but the experience pales in comparison to seeing it in real life. One gets more of a sense of the process of the work, which, as we all know, is muy importante. When a work is viewed as a reproduction, it lends the work a false smoothness- really, the only thing one can gather from a repro is composition, and if great care is taken w/the photography, some of the color relationships (although all you have to do is type in a famous painting into a search engine and see how different the images appear to see that you can't rely on any kind of accuracy)