I  took a break to attend a 3 day workshop and I did well, but I was exhausted every night. I have always been a people person, but I spent so much of my recovery holed up with Mr C here in the condo, that I am finding spending a lot of time stimulated by the presence of other people is exhausting for me! Who knew that would every happen to me! I will share some stuff from the workshop later, but I wanted to finish my SFMOMA posting.

Our next stop was at the Calder exhibit which was inside and out. I love his mobiles.

In the outdoor area, there was a beautiful garden wall of ferns and other plants.

Then we were off to Open Ended: Painting and Sculpture since 1900.  A couple of Matisse portraits caught my eye. The first is The Girl with the Green Eyes.

This one is Woman With a Hat. This one was done a little earlier than the one above. I thought it was interesting that it had a more impressionistic quality to it. I really like it better, I think.

I love color and the beauty of juxtaposing colors as Josef Albers does in these 4 pieces.

Mr C and I both have an affection for Robert Motherwell’s works. His work is so bold and graphic. We own a signed print of his work.

See how exciting this place is. You walk into a room and on every wall is a piece by one of your favorite artists. This being work by Mark Rothko.

And what is not to love about this Diebenkorn, Berkeley #7?

There were several pieces by Clyfford Still. His color use is extraordinary.

This  is one of Robert Rauschenberg’s gritty pieces.

I was happy to see this collage by Romare Bearden, one of my favorite artists. I was introduced to his work when I lived in North Carolina and was a docent at an art museum that owned a few of his pieces.

By now, I was beginning to feel as if a truck had run over me but I was determined to find the small works by Klee, another favorite artist.

I was happy to find this in the gift shop: Art Inc. by my daughter, Lisa.

There was so much more. I hope to go back again, soon.

One thing I really wanted to do while we were in California was to visit the renovated SFMOMA. It was closed for a long time as they expanded their exhibition space. Mr C used to say the SFMOMA was great architecture and bad art. The main problem was the lack of exhibition space. Well, that has been remedied. It is 5 floors of wondrous art. I had to stop and sit quite often as my stamina was minimal, but I kept going, feeling enriched by the creativity around me. By evening, I could barely get to my hotel room to crash!

We started on the fifth floor with an exhibition of outdoor sculpture. The wire man up there was quite delightful. This work was by an Englishman who created sculptures from natural materials on his solo treks around the world.

Next was this wall covering created by Jongstra, a Dutch fiber artist. She used raw and crafted felt, hand-spun silk, and dried flora. It was huge and in a hallway and difficult to photograph.

In another gallery, we saw these pieces by Andy Warhol and Chuck Close.

This was a different version of his Marilyn work – Reverse Marilyns.

Chuck Close created this portrait using circles in various shades of gray to black. Mesmerizing to look at.

I loved this piece by Frank Stella, so different from his other work, below.

So, I could not wait to get into this gallery! These pieces were in one room.

This very abstracted work always looks so simple, but believe me, it is not easy to do. Wish I had the ability.

These are two pieces by Ellsworth Kelly that could be art quilts – actually, I think I have seen them made into quilts – don’t you agree.

I will continue this on another day. I need to get my beauty sleep. I am taking a Radical Embroidery workshop at Oregon College of Art and Craft for the next 3 days. This has been my week to enter back into my Portland life. It has been great, but very tiring. I seem to be better each day. In San Francisco, we stayed at the Sofitel in Redwood City. It was really lovely. This was the view from our room. I enjoyed living in the lap of luxury for a few days.