A Day at the Museum

Our field trip to the CBHoF was fun. We had lunch at Ted’s Escondido Café in OK City (good food and good astmosphere) before we went to the museum – so that we would not be hungry and could just enjoy our time looking at art. The Prix de West Art Exhibit and Sale was being set up, but the show does not actually open until next week. We did get to see some of the artwork for the sale, which was great. The downside was that one of the regular art galleries was closed while the Prix de West show was being set up. Oh well, I guess we will just have to go back :)

I always love seeing the art from famous Taos artists like Irving Couse. Back in the early 90’s, I was in Albuquerque where I met up with an old friend. We went to a store which sold Indian jewelry. While my friend was looking through the jewelry, I was visiting with the sales lady. She told me her mother was in a rest home in Taos. She said that she wished she could get to Taos more often to check on her mother. I told the sales lady that I would be glad to go by and visit with her elderly mother in the rest home. At the time, I did not make the connection, but when I got back to Taos, I did visit with her mother several times. She was a charming lady with a ready smile and lots of wonderful stories. She was Marion Couse, the daughter-in-law of Irving Couse. Meeting her was a wonderful experience.

Being with seven beautiful young ladies draws much attention. The security guards who stand around in the museum were great to point out interesting things in the paintings and tell stories about the artwork. Of course we took some silly photos and had much fun. After looking through the art, we moved on to the rest of the museum. I think my favorite part was the Western Performers Gallery, which had some great movie memorabilia. Even better was the paintings of movie stars like John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Kirk Douglas, etc. The best was painting by Norman Rockwell of Walter Brennan.

We moved on to an area of the museum called Prosperity Junction, which was full size buildings set up as an old western town. The girls performed for the other museum gawkers by posing for silly pictures and singing in the church. Here they are in front of the gnerel store, robbing the bank and hanging out in the saloon. Although I took several photos, my camera is not good with "night-time" photos, but here are a few that worked okay. In the little church, Sarah Ann sang along with the organ music to "Rock of Ages," which drew a few people in to hear her. In fact, all day long the girls would break into song – usually from famous musicals.

Our last stop was the area with Wilson Hurley’s five huge panoramic paintings. They are each 18X46 feet. The paintings are awesome, but then the security guard took the girls around to each painting pointing out small hidden details in the paintings such as this snake or the people on the observation deck near the waterfall. The whole museum experience was enjoyable. We made it home driving in wind gusts up to 40 mph, but the thunderstorms held off until later in the evening. It was a good day.