An afternoon date

 Al and I went on a date to Wichita.  We decided to go to Wasabi and ordered  bento dishes with miso.

We stopped at the bird store too; needing to look at some traps as we are having trouble with a sparrow bothering our purple martins and destroying eggs.  We saw some pretty spectacular purple martin houses!  With spectacular prices too.  We will be in the market next year perhaps.

Going to art museums isn't Al's favorite thing to do, but he said if it meant he got to spend time with me, he would. 

There was a Phil Epp painting in the lobby!

He lives in our hometown and we have his paintings around town.

The Blue Sky Sculpture

                                                        and on our water tower!

I love them!  It shows off the Kansas sky!

Look, Graber Family!  

We are looking forward to seeing some of this this summer!  

Think we will see surf this big?

 The art museum was pretty full as it was the last day for the Monet to Matisse collection.  59 paintings by French modernists.

 The detail on this painting was impressive!

We saw this collection in Tulsa at the art museum there!

The sign says "Bird Form is a kinetic sculpture that can gently move when touched."  But....

The detail in this Bouguereau painting of "The Elder Sister" was remarkable!  The coloring of the skin, the cheeks, the fine lines in the feet.  Wow!  I would love to be able to paint like that!  Maybe in heaven I can learn?

There was only 1 Monet in all the collection.

I had hoped this one.

My mother had a copy of  "Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies."  In 1997, she and her siblings went to Paris, where Uncle Wally and Aunt Wanda lived.  Uncle Wally and Aunt Wanda took the family to Monet's house and the bridge.

Both my husband and I like the realist paintings better than the impressionistic.  Al thinks some of that style looks like it is just slopped on.  I KNOW that it really is probably very difficult to paint impressionistically to make it look real, but he just prefers the realism and I do too.

In fact, a friend of mine from church I was in Bible study with (she has now passed on) has a son-in-law, Ken Raney, that is an amazing artist (and his wife is the famous Christian author, Deb Raney) and we both think his paintings should be put in museums!   You can see more of his work here.  And be sure to Google Deb Raney's fantastic books as well!  She is one of my favorite authors!  They even made a movie of her book, "A Vow to Cherish".