Dale Chihuly at Franklin Park Conservatory

Wednesday
Laura left us this morning for a couple of days, visiting friends in the Columbus area. When Roger and I were considering what to do with the day, we got to thinking we hadn’t visited Columbus for a number of years, and a search on the internet revealed that there was a special exhibition at the Columbus Art Museum, “Beyond Impressionism”, so that decided it! It was another bitterly cold day, but under sunshine and blue skies, so it was a lovely drive up there. Firstly we visited Franklin Park Conservatory. A feature of the Conservatory besides the varied plants and its seasonal poinsettia display is the magnificent glass artwork of Dale Chihuly. The Conservatory hosted an exhibition by glass artist Dale Chihuly back in 2003, and since the exhibition had record breaking attendance, the Friends of the Conservatory arranged to purchase most of the pieces in the exhibition as a permanent collection for the Conservatory. My Blip is one of the overhead displays in one of the rooms. When we were finished at the Conservatory we went for lunch at North Star Café, one of Jen and Jason’s favorite eating places from their Columbus days. Then we continued to the Art Museum. The exhibition Beyond Impressionism featured approximately 100 paintings, drawings and prints, and explored the Parisian art scene, focusing on some of the most important French avant-garde artists of the late 19th century, including Paul Signac, Maximilien Luce, Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard, Félix Vallotton, Odilon Redon, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Altogether it made a great day out. We got home about 6.30 and had some left overs for supper.Jen and Jason returned from Cleveland later in the evening.