President Obama has first meal under Painting of Yosemite Va

Grab your bear can or camp chair, kick your feet up and chew the fat about anything Sierra Nevada related that doesn't quite fit in any of the other forums. Within reason, (and the HST rules and guidelines) this is also an anything goes forum. Tell stories, discuss wilderness issues, music, or whatever else the High Sierra stirs up in your mind.
Post Reply
User avatar
Trekker
Topix Regular
Posts: 236
Joined: Fri Mar 03, 2006 1:46 pm
Experience: N/A
Location: San Diego

President Obama has first meal under Painting of Yosemite Va

Post by Trekker »

The Inaugural lunch was held under an 1865 painting of Yosemite Valley by Thomas Hill. I'd say that is a good start! :nod:
User avatar
gdurkee
Founding Member
Posts: 774
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2005 8:20 pm
Experience: N/A

Re: President Obama has first meal under Painting of Yosemite Va

Post by gdurkee »

That was the very first thing that caught my eye with the opening shot of the lunch room -- though, from a distance, I thought it was Bierstadt. A really great painting, as are all his Western scenes. Also, Feinstein gave it a few words in her introduction and welcome to everyone.

I also noticed on the HBO coverage of the Sunday concert, the National Park idea was given a couple of minutes (forgot who read the brief history -- featured Teddy Roosevelt).

So, yes, a hopeful beginning for that and so much else.

g.
User avatar
Skibum
Founding Member
Posts: 236
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2005 4:50 pm
Experience: N/A
Location: Kings Canyon Nat'l Park, CA.

Re: President Obama has first meal under Painting of Yosemite Va

Post by Skibum »

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
User avatar
BSquared
Founding Member
Posts: 958
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2005 3:31 pm
Experience: Level 3 Backpacker
Location: Jericho, VT

Re: President Obama has first meal under Painting of Yosemite Va

Post by BSquared »

Yeah, I saw that, too. Cool! When I get longing for the west I go up to Washington and check out the Thomas Moran paintings. The most famous one (The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, painted from what is now called "Artist's Point" I think) is a good 8 feet on a side -- next best thing to being there, and (for me) it's a much cheaper trip! You can almost smell the sulfur... This one is cropped on the right side, but you get the idea...

Image
User avatar
gdurkee
Founding Member
Posts: 774
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2005 8:20 pm
Experience: N/A

Re: President Obama has first meal under Painting of Yosemite Va

Post by gdurkee »

On my occasional forays to either DC or New York, I always look for any Western Art section -- Hill, Bierstadt, Ayers etc. All those guys understood space & horizons. Must have been a huge shock to the Eastern aesthete. Even today, you still get eastern reviewers talking about "a remoteness and implacability so bleak, hard, and cold that they would provoke terror were they not so admirably encompassed by a rectangular frame." (from a Vanity Fair review of Ansel Adams in 2002).

I wonder, though, if Bierstadt was purposely playing to that "terror" the easterners seemed to crave and expect (kind of like, pardon me, the photographer Galen Rowell).

Thomas Hill's View of the Yosemite Valley -- fairly realistic:

Image


By contrast, here's an especially wild Bierstadt:

Image

Not to overdo it on Easterner bashing, but it was the big publishers there who would reject many of our greatest writers because "these books have trees in them." -- A classic rejection of A River Runs Through It. MacLean got the last laugh by 1) having a best seller when he did find a publisher and 2) writing the greatest put down when that same publisher asked to do his next book: "If you were the last publisher and I the last writer, literature would die."
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 48 guests