1/20/2016 10:11:20 PM
Off the yellow addiction and onto orange! Beginning a native plant painting of the Yucca glauca. Noticed all my paintings were beginning to get psychedelic and am now trying to tone it down a bit thinking I would go with a nice calming dusty blue leafed white flowered yucca. Well, so much for that, somehow I have got orange and bright blue! I am sure it will surprise me as it develops over time, I usually get a fairly clear idea and just trust from there. This is why I love watercolours...I hope to produce one a week as I was doing in Thailand but it is challenging with massage work too...all in good time my Dear Watson, all in good time!
1/20/2016 9:32:10 PM
Started out the year well with a variety of new commitments, one being working with the NBAL artists. It was such fun today to meet and chat with other local artists, some showing their work and others giving classes. The work space upstairs is the best I have seen since collage days and the meeting/demo space downstairs is perfect for instruction with a large slanted mirror above the demo table so others can see what they are doing easily. I look forward to an active year in this gallery!
1/10/2016 9:08:48 PM
Just couldn't' resist taking this pic today. Went to the San Antonio Botanic Gardens and am always so blown over by the diversity of Texas plant life! There are Texas natives of course, but a rose garden and oranges, papaya and banana, lilies and nasturtiums. So many gorgeous plants to have in one's garden, makes me very excited to have a home in which to plant! I plan on really getting into planting some Texas natives this spring so have to be patient and spend this last of the winter learning about what to plant. The skies are blue as blue can get and the cooler weather is just enough to wear your chunky sweaters and jeans with boots, I'm lovin' it!
1/10/2016 9:33:03 AM
Becoming the McNay
Ohio-born heiress Marion Koogler first visited San Antonio in 1918, shortly after her marriage to Sergeant Don Denton McNay, who was called to active duty in Laredo, Texas. Later that year Don McNay died from the Spanish flu. In 1926, Marion moved to San Antonio, where she met and married prominent ophthalmologist Donald T. Atkinson. The following year, she purchased her first modern oil painting, Diego Rivera’s Delfina Flores, and the Atkinsons commissioned San Antonio architects Atlee and Robert Ayres to design a 24-room Spanish Colonial-Revival house that would one day become the core of the McNay Art Museum. Marion continued to collect 19th- and 20th-century European and American paintings, as well as Southwest art from New Mexico. When her marriage to Atkinson ended in 1936, she returned to using her first husband’s name. At her death in 1950, Marion left her collection of more than 700 works of art, along with the house, the surrounding 23 acres, and an endowment to establish the first museum of modern art in Texas. In 1954 the McNay opened its doors to the public. The Jane and Arthur Stieren Center for Exhibitions, built in 2008 and designed by French architect Jean-Paul Viguier, added 45,000 square feet to the museum and created gallery space for major exhibitions, a sculpture gallery and garden, a lecture hall, and classrooms for the museum’s many educational programs.
The McNay Today
- Since Marion McNay’s original bequest in 1950, the museum’s collection has expanded to nearly 20,000 works including:
- Medieval and Renaissance art
- 19th- through 21st- century European and American paintings, sculptures, and photographs
- One of the finest collections of prints and drawings in the Southwest
- The exceptional Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts
- Jeanne and Irving Mathews Collection of Art Glass
- Art of New Mexico
Mission and Purpose
The McNay Art Museum engages a diverse community in the discovery and enjoyment of the visual arts.
