Martha Rea Baker  has spent the last six weeks traveling and visiting many  art museums  and inspiring venues in the Southwest and on the California Central Coast. The value of viewing great art in all media cannot be overly emphasized!

The journey began in March with a trip through Scottsdale and stops at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West and the studio and residence of Paolo Soleri, where  Martha enjoyed the vision of these two organic architects.  April  took her west, beginning in LA at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Getty Museum, traveling up the coast to the Santa Barbara Art Museum and Hearst Castle at San Simion. The California trip ended in Carmel by the Sea, a vibrant art lover’s community.

In mid-April, travels to Texas gave Martha the opportunity to visit the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio where she saw a comprehensive Andy Warhol retrospective, and on to Houston where the rich Museum District was the icing on the cake! The Houston Museum of Fine Art and the Houston Contemporary Art Museum did not disappoint. In the Beck Building at the HMFA the exhibition, Shifting Paradigms in Contemporary Ceramics: The Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection was stunning! The Menil Collection included the impressive exhibit, Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective and visits to the Cy Twombly Gallery and the Rothko Chapel, both equally meditative.

The artist has returned to her familiar Studio Tres Picos near Santa Fe, an inspiration in itself, and is back at the easel. We have posted the most recent painting, inspired by travels in Northern New Mexico. We eagerly await the influences of the recent journeys.