Don and Mary's visit

My identical twin, Don, and his wife Mary, came to visit, and specifically to see the John Sargent watercolor exhibit at the MFA.  I drove him out to Duxbury Beach, and he saw his first Snowy Owl in his life, and a beauty.  We actually saw two, one I was sure I had photographed before, and a much darker one.
The trip to the Sargent exhibit was rewarding, but ferociously crowded, and after a while Susan and I bailed and went to the American Wing, for Audubon, Beirstadt, and the Sargent oils.
Here is an overview of what we saw.

Mary, Don's wife, at Oak Point

Here was Don's first Snowy, and was I happy to find it for him!  This was a very dark bird, far darker than
any I had seen so far. Could this be a female?

And so to the exhibit.  Sargent evidently just picked up the brush and was a master at once with water colors..

I've been told that water color is much harder than oils, and that most people
very much overdo the applications.

This is an oil. of course



This shows real genius.  It's perfect

Evidently Sargent could look at a scene and almost dismiss the details and just
draw the light and dark that was left.

This is an oil in the Model Ship gallery

A huge Martin Heade in the same gallery

a detail of the Heade

and another

The "Flying Cloud" , one of Donald McKay's masterpieces

American Chest C. 1740

L to R: Mary, Don, my sister Barbara, husband Bill, Susan, Doug

The painting that made Sargent's reputation at the Paris Exposition

and the four girls