Ancient Hellenistic Faces at San Antonio Musuem of Art

When I have a camera in my hand, I have an obsession to photograph people. However, I feel funny taking pictures of people unless I introduce myself and ask their permission. When that happens, I generally lose the candid and honest emotional shot. I may end up with something usable, but I feel a little sad that I did not get the realism that is possible when the subject is unaware of the lens.

At the San Antonio Museum of Art, I got to photograph a great assortment of faces. The room housing the ancient Greek and Roman work was filled with statues, coins, mosaics and pottery showing the faces of people who lived in a different time. Here are a few of my favorites.

Texas Gets to See Matisse Up Close and Personal

Three artists spent a wonderful morning admiring the San Antonio Museum of Art's special show of a large collection of Henri Matisse's work. They enjoyed having the opportunity to study a great master's work up close, being able to see brush strokes and thickness of paint as well. It was also interesting to see the scale of the different works.

Matisse began to paint in oils in 1889 after an attack of appendicitis. While he was recovering, his mother bought him some paints. He later said,  “From the moment I held the box of colors in my hands, I knew this was my life. I threw myself into it like a beast that plunges towards the thing it loves.” His mother gave him some good advice. She told him not to follow traditional rules of art. Instead, she suggested he listen to his emotions.

Her advice speaks to the author of this blog, too, since I have a strong adversion to being bound by rules, conventions and traditions. 

For my readers who have an interest in art, here are a few of the paintings which I especially admired, along with some close-ups so you, too, can get a better sense of Matisse's brush strokes and colors. 

BALLET DANCER SEATED ON A STOOL

1927

WOMAN IN STRIPED PULLOVER, VIOLIN ON THE TABLE

1921 or 1922

WOMAN IN RED CHAIR

1936

STILL LIFE, COMPOTE, APPLES, AND ORANGES

1899

Japanese Tea Gardens For a Nice Day Trip

The Japanese Tea Gardens, located next to the San Antonio Zoo, is a wonderful place to spend a few some time if you enjoy lush, exotic blooms and plants, as well as koi ponds and a cooling waterfall.

The Gardens were built when the city of San Antonio asked a Japanese man named Kimi Elzo Jingu and his wife to transform an old rock quarry into a Japanese-style garden place in 1915.

To enter the Garden, one can walk under a pagoda style entrance-way which bears the inscription, "Entrance to Chinese Garden," a kind of confusing sign, unless you understand the anti-Japanese feelings that pervaded the United States after the destruction of Pearl Harbor and the forth-coming US involvement in WWII.  From the 1940s until 1983, the city changed the name of the Gardens from the Japanese Tea Garden to the Chinese Tea Garden. 

There are many wheel-chair accessible paths, as well as lots and lots of stone steps to take a person from one part of the garden to another.

The main feature of the garden is the massive stone pavilion. There are picnic tables if you would like to enjoy a snack during your visit, where you can sit and look down to the ponds and over to the waterfall.