SPRINGTIME IN LONDON: A Walk in Hyde Park

Cherry trees in bloom, Hyde Park, London.

Londoners know that it is spring when the lawns of Hyde Park suddenly turn green, daffodils and lupins emerge from the ground, and cherry trees burst into bloom. On our recent trip to London in late April, the weather was cool and sunny—a perfect time for a walk in the park, a short distance from our hotel in South Kensington.

Viburnum.

Narcissus.

We entered the park at the gate near the Serpentine Gallery and followed the walking path toward the Albert Memorial. The park is huge with separate paths for walkers, bikers, and horses. It was not hard to imagine one of the characters from the Forsyte Saga trotting by on horseback.

Sports lawn.

Large lawns and open spaces provide places for picnics, sports, and for dogs to romp. Benches are frequent and a place to rest and enjoy the view.

Cherry blossoms carpet the ground.

Everywhere we looked there were flowers in bloom. The pink blossoms of the cherry trees were at their peak--on the trees and carpeting the ground. In 2019 Japan sent 125 cherry trees to England as a gift symbolizing friendship and cultural ties.

Bluebells with bee.

I spotted a bee collecting nectar from the bluebells next to the path. The next day, on a trip to visit a friend who lives just outside London, we took a walk in the woods and saw hundreds of bluebells in broad patches on the forest floor.

Bluebells on the forest floor in the town of St. Albans.

Albert Memorial.

The Albert Memorial in Hyde Park is hard to miss with its golden spire reaching 176 feet into the sky. A statue of Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, sits inside the pavilion. After Albert died in 1861 at the age of 42, Queen Victoria had the monument erected in his memory. She lived another forty years!

Corner sculpture of the Albert Memorial symbolizing Europe.

Every feature of the structure is significant. At the four corners around the pavilion are large allegorical sculptures representing the arts and sciences and continents.

Albert Hall.

And across the street from the Albert Memorial is Albert Hall, London’s premiere concert hall. It was officially opened by Queen Victoria in 1871.

Mexican Orange Blossom bush.

Our walk gave us just a small taste of what Hyde Park has to offer. We didn’t have the time or energy to do more--it was our first day in London after a very long plane ride from Los Angeles. On a future trip I’d like to see the Peter Pan statue, the Speaker’s Corner, and Serpentine Lake.

MIRO AND THE UNITED STATES: Exhibit at the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Woman and Birds at Sunrise, by Joan Miro. Exhibit at the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Dream-like figures floating in space, sinuous lines, and all over patterns are a hallmark of the art of the Catalan artist Joan Miro (1893-1983). On my recent visit to the Phillips Collection art museum in Washington, D.C. I saw a fascinating exhibit of Miro’s work—mostly paintings, but also some sculptures—showing how he was influenced by American artists like Alexander Calder and Jackson Pollock, and how they in turn were influenced by him.

Left, The First Spark of Day II by Joan Miro. Right, August, Rue Daguerre by Joan Mitchell.

Miro and the United States is co-organized by the Phillips Collection and the Fundacio Joan Miro in Barcelona, Spain. It will be on view at the Phillips from March 21 to July 5, 2026.

Detail of Somersault, an early Miro work exhibited in the US in 1926 at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

The American public first became aware of Miro’s art beginning in the 1920s when it was shown at galleries and in Museum exhibitions in the US. 

Copy of Miro's mural in the Terrace Plaza Hotel, Cincinnati, Ohio.

But Miro’s first visit to the United States was not until 1947 when he came to paint a mural at the Terrace Plaza Hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio, a modern new hotel designed by the Chicago firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. A reproduction of the mural fills one large wall of the exhibit at the Phillips.

Passage of the Divine Bird by Joan Miro.

Another room of the exhibit is devoted to a series of 22 works called Constellations. In every piece we see groups of black dots joined by lines to form shapes similar to those of the Zodiac. Miro began the series when he was living and working in France in 1940. But when the Germans invaded France during WWII he escaped to Spain where he finished the series. The Constellation paintings were exhibited at his gallery in New York in 1945 to great acclaim.

Constellation series by Joan Miro.

Miro’s original Constellation paintings were done in gouache. Then in 1959, the Constellation series was reproduced as limited-edition prints using a stencil technique called couchoir. The works on exhibit are couchoir prints.

Person Throwing a Stone at a Bird, by Joan Miro.

On the day of my visit to the Phillips a class of middle school students was at the exhibit. In each room the teacher gave them an assignment. I overheard her telling the students to choose a painting without looking at the title and create their own title. I wonder what they came up with—it would be hard to beat some of the expressive titles Miro chose for his own work.

The Beautiful Bird Revealing the Unknown to a Pair of Lovers by Joan Miro.

During Miro’s visits to the United States he met many artists and also saw their work in various exhibits. In the show at the Phillips we see numerous examples of Miro’s paintings hung side by side with those of other artists, showing similarities in their choice of images and techniques. Information panels explain the connections. Alexander Calder and Miro became friends after meeting in Paris in 1928, and continued to exchange letters and ideas through the rest of their lives. You can see similarities between Miro's thin black lines and the wires that support Calder's sculptures. One critic said, “Calder’s mobiles are like living Miro abstractions.” 

Red Polygons by Alexander Calder is one of two his mobiles in the exhibit.

Jackson Pollack, the American painter famous for his "drip" paintings, also influenced Miro and has several paintings in the exhibit. In 1952, when Miro first saw Jackson Pollock’s paintings in Paris, he said “It freed me.” Some of the other artists influenced by Miro and represented in the exhibit include Joan Mitchell, Adolph Gottlieb, Barnett Newman, Norman Lewis,  Grace Hartigan, Willem de Kooning.

Left, Vigil by Adolph Gottlieb. Right, detail, Eyes in the Heat by Jackson Pollock.

Head by Joan Miro.

A few examples of Miro’s sculptures are included in the exhibit as well as those of several American sculptors—all displaying an imaginative approach to the world and the human figure.

Red Sun by Joan Miro.

In January 2015 I wrote about a visit to another Miro exhibit which was held at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in North Carolina. At the time, the museum also had an exhibit of the art of Robert Rauschenberg. I wrote: “In both exhibits the viewer is asked to consider similar questions—What is art? What is the meaning of art? How do we see? What is my relationship to this piece of art.? In the current exhibit at the Phillips museum, I think one can ask the same questions as one considers Miro’s art and that of the American artists impacted by his work and who influenced him.

After viewing the Miro exhibit, my friend and I enjoyed a tasty lunch in the museum café on the first floor. It is adjacent to the excellent gift shop. Both the café and gift shop are open to the public, although one needs to buy a ticket to visit the galleries. I always enjoy visiting the Phillips Collection when I am in Washington, DC. Here are links to posts about previous visits.

May 19, 2019  THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION, Washington, D.C., Part 1: America's First Museum of Modern Art

March 9, 2020  THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION, Washington, D.C., Part 2:  What Do You Hang Over the Fireplace?

October 21, 2024   A TREASURE HOUSE OF MODERN ART, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. 

October 28, 2024   WHAT TO HANG OVER THE FIREPLACE, A Visit to the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

MASKS AT THE HULT CENTER IN EUGENE, OREGON, Guest Post by Caroline Hatton

Mythical Masks by M. Nelson & L. Bowers at the Hult Center in Eugene, Oregon

My friend Caroline Hatton, a children’s writer and frequent contributor to this blog, took the photos in this post in November 2025 when she went to a Eugene Symphony concert. "We arrived early and I love looking at the masks in the performing arts center. So I zipped around snapping pictures! This is a permanent display, so it is available year round as long as the building stands." 

Mask display at the Hult Center.

If you like masks or if you enjoy seeing how differently different artists can respond to the same challenge, you might like the permanent display at the performing arts center in Eugene, Oregon. Rows of masks by many creators line the walls of the stair landings to the mezzanine and balcony.

The Hult Center opened in 1982, the first performing arts center in the United States built without state or federal funding—with community funding only. It is the home of four resident companies (ballet and concert). Its roofline evokes the nearby Cascades Mountains and its beams of Douglas fir, the local forests. Blue stair railings symbolize local rivers. Public art graces interior spaces: statues, paintings, and sculptures, including masks, the focus of this blog post.

Each artist created a series of about six to nine masks, which are variations on a theme under a single title. My photos show only two or three examples of each artist’s works. The above photo shows some of the Masks by Laura Wuori.

a

Above: some of the Raku Life Masks by Dan Corbin.

 

Above: some of the Clay Masks by Claire Barr.

Above: some of the Chorus by Anita Griffith, the most hilarious series!

Above: some of the Masks by Eric Gronborg.

Above: some of the Stylized Masks by Susan St. Michael.

Above: some of the Faces by Mike Imes.

Just when I thought I had photographed samples of every mask artist’s work on display, I would come around a corner and discover another series, and another one.

Above is my favorite, one of the Mythical Masks by M. Nelson & L. Bowers, because the mouth is genius: echoing the lines and angles of the overall star design perfectly, and unmistakably shouting for joy, despite its unnatural shape.

JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK, A Visit to Historic Keys Ranch, Guest Post by Susan Kean

Keys Ranch, main house, Joshua Tree National Park.

My friend Susan Kean loves to travel and has been a regular contributor to this blog. In February, she drove with friends to Joshua Tree National Park from her home in Redlands, California. I was particularly interested to hear about her visit to Keys Ranch, once a homestead and now a historic site within the park. Joshua Tree became a National Monument in 1936 and a National Park in 1994. 

Here is Susan's report.

I recently spent an overnight in Joshua Tree National Park with my friends Barbara and Sue. On our way out, we enjoyed the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway and walked around at the top of the mountain. There was a small amount of snow. The day was glorious, so the view from the top was magnificent.

At the top of the tramway.

Then we headed over to our lodging in the Joshua Tree area in an incredibly isolated location down about two miles of dirt road. 

Desert landscape with Joshua Tree.

The antelope ground squirrel is adapted to desert life, using its tail to shade itself from the sun.

It was a real adventure with a spectacular nighttime view of the stars.

Mining equipment at Keys Ranch. They mined silver and gold.

The next day we booked a tour of Keys Ranch. This was a mining and cattle ranch built by homesteader William Keys in 1910. 

He kept everything.

This was the chicken coop--to give the chickens a safe place at night from coyotes.

Since farming in the desert was very difficult, many other homesteaders left and he acquired their land. He built up a huge area of land which he eventually sold but on condition that he and his wife could live out their lives there. The person they sold it to gave it to the Government and it became Joshua Tree National Park.

View down to the Salton Sea.

Note from CA: You an learn more about the creation of Joshua Tree National Park in the excellent children’s book, Cactus Queen by Lori Alexander, the story of Minerva Hoyt, who campaigned in Washington, D.C. for the creation of the park. 

MURALS AT THE FOWLER MUSEUM, UCLA, Los Angeles, California

Close-up of mural created by UCLA students for Fowler Museum, Los Angeles, CA.

On a recent visit to the Fowler Museum on the UCLA campus, I was struck by the murals lining the walls surrounding the center atrium. Printed with colorful, overlapping images that repeated across the surface, they invited me to look closer. There are six of them—two with enlarged versions of the individual images, and four with the images much smaller, printed in rows and covering the entire surface of the canvas. Standing far away, each mural looks like a giant vertical carpet, filling the available space. Close-up the effect is almost three-dimensional, like an optical illusion, the designs shimmering in the air.

According to the information panel about the murals, they were created by UCLA students working with Brazilian artists and activists Monica Nador and Bruno Oliviera of the Jardim Miriam Arte Clube (JAMAC) in Sao Paolo.  (JAMAC fosters collaboration between artists, local residents, and activists to create murals, prints, and public interventions that reflect community narratives and struggles.) Through a series of workshops, conversations led to a design process, followed by stencil making, and finally a discussion-based construction of patterns that reflected the complex interactions between the community and the artist.

In the following photographs you can appreciate the complexity of the designs and the richness of the patterns and colors.  But to get the full impact you have to see them in person.

To find out about the meaning of the images and the source of their inspiration you can listen to interviews with the students HERE.. 

The Fowler Museum is open Wednesday 12-8 pm, and Thursday through Sunday 12-5 pm. Admission is always free.