Not to mention all the Picassos

Went to the Whitney Museum with PS on Sunday.

Two of the four floors of art were open.
Top floor visiting exhibit of Edward Hopper.
He did that painting of a diner at night called "Night Hawks"


from www.assumption.edu

I gotta say. Some of the paintings were kind of awkward or so-so.

But then there were some paintings - my god. There was serious passion in the paints. The light, the colors, the shadows. Wow.

Beyond his artistry and the early paintings, the self portraits, and illustrations they had his sketches.
Sketch after sketch as a preparation for doing the painting.

It was awesome to get a peek into the process, the practice, the choices.
Staircase? No staircase? Curtain? Yes? No? This angle vs. that angle.

It was great to have that evidence of the craft and discipline in art. "Night Hawks" didn't just happen. It did not spring from Hopper's mind fully formed. A process brought it into being.

Ducks look serene floating on the lake but under the surface those legs are a-paddling.