Friday, June 22, 2012

Back in Albany

We got back to Albany on Monday afternoon and spent the next few days seeing family and doing some last minute errands. My new glasses came in so I went in for the fitting. Some other paperwork got done, and we shopped a bit more.

My cousin Mark's painting, with the wine bar in the basements of the yellow & green buildings.
And that's a self-portrait of the artist pushing a dolly of wine cases.

In addition to seeing my mom and three of my aunts, we spent an evening having drinks with one of my cousins and his wife. They're the ones who came to Paris on their honeymoon last year, and he's the one who painted this scene (above), which is now hanging in my house.

And here's the actual scene, from a slightly different angle.

Ken and I met up with Mark and Julie at a wine bar downtown which just happens to be in Mark's painting. I couldn't resist taking a real-life shot of the scene the next day. It was great fun to see them again!

11 comments:

  1. I've always been jealous of Artists who could draw/paint like that.
    I may have Mark's name but I sure don't have his talent.
    m.

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  2. I love the 'gentle' lean on the buildings... much more lively than a purely architectural portrail of the same scene... great fun and a superb picture.

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  3. How fun to see the inspiration. I've always admired that painting since you first posted the picture of it. What a talented family you belong to.

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  4. Oooh! It's nice to see that fabulous painting again. I like it better than the real setting, in fact!

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  5. So cool that you met in the wine bar pictured! Lewis and I loved Albany.
    A friend from our church got a neat gift from his son this father's day. A trip to Albany to visit the ship he was on when he was in the Navy in WWII. I didn't realize it was there in the harbor or I would have gone onboard. The father and son are going to fly together and have an adventure. I hope that they'll eat at Jack's.

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  6. It's a super painting. I remember your first post about this a year or so ago. I love the subject matter and particularly the colours.

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  7. Dare I say it? Your cousin's painting makes the place look a lot better than it really is!

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  8. Did you inadvertently capture a drug deal going down in that car in the foreground?

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  9. Love the painting and I wondered whether the two men in your photo were trying to break into the car!

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  10. mark, oh, you're too modest, Mr. Father of Four Photographer Extraordinaire.

    tim, yes, the painting adds a certain liveliness.

    kristi, he's done a lot of work like this around town and it's fun to see/know the actual locations.

    judy, me too!

    evelyn, the Slater? We saw it (but didn't visit). It's docked very close to the hotel you stayed in.

    gaynor, I was surprised to see that the actual colors were still the same.

    starman, that's the cool thing about art!

    cubby, I don't think so, but I don't remember what they were doing. This street is center of the "gayborhood," such as it is.

    victor, probably not, just chatting with the driver.

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  11. Yes, that's the ship- we walked down to the river before we left Albany. We saw the Erie Canal info, but missed the ship. Imagine how special it will be for this fellow in his 80s to be aboard the ship he lived on for many months when he was a young fellow.

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Tell me what you think!