Graham TX ~ Pansy Painting ~ Kimbell Museum ~ Neil Sperry

6" x 6" purchased through Canvas by Canvas
Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas - Floral Mini



The pansies were blooming in the Kimbell atrium and the inspiration for my pansy painting.

CBC loves road trips and resolves to take at least one a month in 2008. On December 27, we visited the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth for inspiration from the show Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art, a landmark exhibition of the earliest works of art illustrating the Old and New Testaments that will be on view from November 18, 2007, to March 30, 2008. More to come on this art work that CBC is planning.
Friday, January 4, 2008 found Maryann, Cindy Y, Cindy C, and me, (Nancy) on the way to Graham, TX. about 90 miles west of Fort Worth. Graham, "the North Star of Texas" with America's largest downtown square, was founded in 1872. Our Graham story is that we've found a lot of friendly folks and made some new friends.
The first stop was to eat at the Magnolia Tea Room. A photo of my delicious food is included in the slide show below. In Mark's Gallery, Maryann bought Cindy C, (the mother of the most children in our group) a sign that says " Who are all these kids and why are they calling me mom."All day, strangers would ask, where are you from and what brings you to Graham and we were happy to tell them we were Arlington artists out on a field trip and gave them cards of our paintings and then we took their photo, then they'd recommend places for us to "be sure and see." What a welcome and we visited so much we never made it completely around the square.
We purchased some easels from Kathy Martin at the Vogue Boutique to use in the Neil Sperry show.
Next was the Old Post Office Museum and Art Center which opened in October 2002 and promotes history and art of Graham and of Young County. The art-deco style structure was built in 1936. They host the Art Splash Festival , a national juried show, and have visiting artists booked for exhibition for 2008.
We had many recommendations to go to J Dolittle and Co and it was like an instant friend when we met Vickie. She called her brother and 3 of her friends and we took photos and discussed our "dreams and visions". Vickie and her brother have converted an old service station into an eclectic store with urban accents and southern style. Her plans are to expand into the 2 bays and have "art on the asphalt" area. To describe Vickie I'd suggest you look in the thesaurus for vivacious and all the words would apply. We met her friend, Nancy, next door at Chantilly Antiques and Beth, a descendant of the founding Morrison family, and Connie, with her own special cell phone ring tone. We will meet up with these fun ladies again, I'm sure. Vickie's store has art and jewelry and a few wicked looking items in a bucket by the door and Cindy Y had to purchase one of the back scratchers made from a beaver claw for her son, Alex. Naturally I went for the flashy rings.
Graham is the birth place of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association formed in 1877 to combat cattle rustling and guess they've done a pretty good job as we met some great people. I wish you could have joined us on this road trip as Cindy has a new vehicle with a TV and if you ride in the back you can watch art dvd's as you travel!
The great WHOA sign was near the Wildcatter Resort Ranch. We drove around the ridge but as it was getting dark, we headed back to Arlington but it is a must visit on our next trip.
Check out the slide show below this post to see some of the photos taken.