Thursday, November 18, 2010

Santa Monica Sunsets....by Ms. Z



34 comments:

tha malcontent said...

Cool.........

Trekkie4Ever said...

Majestic! Absolutely breathtaking.

sue said...

Z - The photos are beautiful. They would make good paintings.

I did a painting last year from a picture on your blog.

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Throw silhouettes of palm trees in the foreground of the 2nd picture and it'll look like my shower curtain.

(My bathroom is done up in nuclear neon orange, my favorite color)

cube said...

Very beautiful. In keeping with Beamish's disclosure, my shower curtain has palm trees overlooking a sunrise on the beach.

Z said...

well, I think they're lovely and look nothing like shower curtains, but thanks to the others! I'll tell my stepdaughter you liked them.....this is just a very few of so many gorgeous shots she's always taking........most are much more interesting; she likes to do more geometric stuff for me because she knows I like rows of things or reflections in puddles or old doors and windows but I thought you guys would enjoy these, too.

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous, Z!
Tell Ms. Z that I'm a fan. :-)

Z said...

didn't mean for that to sound snitty, I didn't mean it that way.
I'm not used to shower curtains but I suppose there are all sorts of images on them!

Anonymous said...

I just returned from there, spent 2Sundays in Malibu at a house right on the edge of the shore, waves rolling beneath, fabulous weather, & you're right about the sunsets.

Silvrlady

Always On Watch said...

Oh, wow!

I've been to Santa Monica but never caught sunsets as beautiful as these on my camera.

Thanks for the moments of peace and sanity.

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Me and Cube probably have the same shower curtain.

I mean, same picture on different shower curtains.

FrogBurger said...

Very nice. Thanks Mr. Z.

Anonymous said...

Fabulous pictures Z.

Serene and inviting.

Pris

Dave Miller said...

I was a pastor for three years in Santa Monica so I have seen many of those sunsets from Palisades, the pier, and of course, the beach...

It's a beautiful area...

Joe said...

I would fly right over, but I'm not about to go through airport security to get there.

The photos are gorgeous, though.

Z said...

David, NOvember is THE best month, remember?
I'd love to know which church you were Pastor at! I didn't know you lived here!

Joe, it's worth it (well, not being groped, but.....)

Z said...

Jen, she's got a flash that she says cost almost what her camera cost....you can't see very well through the computer lens, but in person, these are SO fabulous...I'm glad you like what you see! That's high praise, coming from you!

Z said...

sue, you DID? That's fantastic...I'll bet it was a photo of Mr. Z's... An artist friend's promised me a painting of one of his images but she's getting ready for some gallery openings...darn, she's too busy still!
I love that you did that!

Chuck said...

Z, I have never been to the People's Republik of Kalifornia (although I genuinely would like to visit) but this looks beautiful.

My favorite place in Michigan is the shore of Lake Michigan. It looks a lot like this with the sunsets and sailboats in the distance. I go out there to fish a few times a year. I don't catch much but I don't care. I am content to spend the day watching the boats come and go through the channel and to look out on the lake.

Ducky's here said...

Talking about art, this may interest you, z. I've spent 9 hours there and still haven't got to the top floor. It's mind numbing.

Arts of the Americas

"One can imagine arguments growing sharp in the present political climate, when opinions about what America was, is and should be are so polarized and proprietorial. And maybe this is where art itself comes to the rescue. So much about the new Americas Wing is so startling, stimulating and beautiful that you just want to lay down your arms."

Yeah, maybe so. This was beyond any expectations I had, although the exhibit that really hit me were the 7th century Guatemalan burial urns. Never knew we had a world class pre-Columbian collection.

Oh, nice shot of the Ferris wheel.

Anonymous said...

PHOTOSHOPPED...PHOTOSHOPPED!!!??

No? Really? They look that good without messin' with them?

sue said...

Z - It was a lake with a sailboat on it, and some thin trees on the shore in the foreground. I just did it simple and it turned out nice. The only one I've hung in our house, except for this Thanks/Christmas. It was fairly big.

Z said...

Ducky, "lay down arms" for the art?
Glad you enjoyed the art so much.

Imp, what about photoshop?

Sue, I don't think that is one of Mr. Z's but I"m glad it was such an inspiration!

Ducky's here said...

Well,z, what the writer meant was that our art may well be the best route we have for determining our shared history.

I think you should revisit that shot of the pier in different light and different focal lengths to manipulate those blocks of pure color.
Might not be as effective in sunlight when the wheel isn't lit.

Z said...

Ducky, I think you need to revisit the location to know she exactly caught the light as it was...brilliant job.

America's history doesn't need to be 'shared'...look what sharing ourselves now has wrought......we're fighting a war on the southern border that's getting worse by the minute TO OUR PEOPLE, and THAT is who America cares about. OUR people, OUR history.
still, I know the leftwingers can't quite abide that.......and, having said what I said, you'd imply I either don't know of or don't see any benefits to the shared history with, say, Mexico...which is ludicrous.
I just wish they'd stop killing us...a shared history today doesn't feel too good. To them or us.

Ducky's here said...

America's history doesn't need to be 'shared'...look what sharing ourselves now has wrought......we're fighting a war on the southern border that's getting worse by the minute TO OUR PEOPLE, and THAT is who America cares about. OUR people, OUR history.

------------------

Here's where the far right drives me crazy. You don't seem to be aware that American art has never until maybe the last 10 or 15 years been considered as a separate topic in art history. We have always been considered a branch of Europe and an inferior one at that.

So along comes what is likely the last major museum expansion in this country for a long while given the state of the economy and what does it do?

It takes the finest collection of American art in the world and presents it in a way that finally gives us a unique physical presence. It's out there now and the talk will begin about just who we were. Sully's 12 foot by 19 foot painting of Washington at the Delaware finally has display space that is it's equal (and a restored frame that itself cost almost six figures).

It's ironic that I'll get the "don't give me the Fine Arts 101 lecture" or some crack about Serrano from people who evidently didn't know that our own art history has been hidden. But I can see where you'd get upset, part of the display is a gallery which has one of the finest pre-Columbian collections in the world and we wouldn't want their history displayed, would we.

I just do not understand they right. Never will, I suppose.

Anyway, this expansion is larger than many U.S. museums and the quality is so high that it absolutely knocks you over. There we are and it's worth a trip to Boston on its own.

cube said...

Beamish: I'm glad you cleared that up :-)

Z said...

Ducky, the link NOW says I have to log in...when did that happen? This morning I got directly into it.

I won't be joining anything so I'm not going to get to read it again.

Something about the attitude of it bugged me and it provoked me.

I am very glad there's a preColumbian gallery, who wouldn't be?
As for American art history, have you never heard of Wyeth, O'Keefe, Frankenthaler, the Hudson School, etc etc...........who's HIDING, or has hidden, American ART?

please stop the sarcasm, this is a conversation I'd like to continue...I'm leaving soon but hope to be back early evening your time.

Z said...

John Singer Sargent
William Merritt Chase
Winslow Homer
Frederick Church
Thomas Moran
Albert Bierstadt
Robert Spencer
George Bellows
Willard Metcalf
Theodore Robinson
John Twachman
John La Farge
Frederick Remington
Charles Marion Russell
Childe Hassam
Maurice Predergras
Guy Rose
William Wendt
Thomas Eakins
John Sloan....all well known..and that's just for starters.

Anonymous said...

I love that you listed so many great American artists, Z.

I recently bought a book of Wyeth's art and I LOVE IT!

I started researching and found out that he is / or was despised in the "art community".

I guess he wasn't avante garde enough. ;-)

Susannah said...

Absolutely GORGEOUS!!! Makes me miss the beach!!!

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Here's where the far right drives me crazy. You don't seem to be aware that American art has never until maybe the last 10 or 15 years been considered as a separate topic in art history. We have always been considered a branch of Europe and an inferior one at that.

Actually the right, far or otherwise, doesn't have to fall for the category errors of leftists and their inability to grasp even linear logic.

American art may have "always been considered a branch of Europe and an inferior one at that" by pretentious twits.

Meanwhile, we're reading comic books, listening to rock and roll. and heading out on the blacktop in horseless carriages to go see Mt. Rushmore.

Don't Google "Cahokia Mounds" Ducky, you'll hurt yourself.

MathewK said...

This is part of california, yes? Beautiful, too bad you can't say the same for the state of affairs there.

Z said...

MK..we try to hide the beauty so people won't come...every year, we host the Rose Bowl Parade and game and we cringe because the weather's clear and 75degrees and we know that those in Nebraska in zero 30 degrees are packing for their move!

Yes, sadly, idiotic Californians think it's fine that illegals are packing too...except they don't pack, they sneak across traveling light and then depend on us to supply their needs , and get it.

Yes, California's a gorgeous state. I also cringe when people tell me they don't see the beauty "I went to a conference at the airport and stayed at a hotel there and it's not pretty at all!" :-) That cracks me UP!