Sentimental Over Art

Recently I happened to see an ad in a hotel magazine advertising that our favorite artist was having a local gallery showing.  We've loved Dale Terbush's art ever since we stumbled upon his work in a beautiful art gallery in Santa Fe year and years ago.  Based on his biographic details, I think that Sante Fe gallery may have been among his earliest showings.  The gallery was set up with dimmer lights on each piece, so you could turn the lighting on the paintings up and down and watch the light in the painting dim and glow.  It was like making the sun go up and come down in every picture.  Each piece was beyond lovely, but we especially fell in love with this one, which has been over our fireplace ever since.

We bought a signed print, for which I seem to remember we paid hundreds of dollars, but when I pulled out the receipt I laughed to see that we paid a whopping $57.64.  That was a lot of money back in the early marriage years, which makes the print all the more a treasure for us.

I was delighted when I heard that the very same Dale Terbush was having a local art showing.  I thought it would be a sentimental Valentine's date, so that was my request for Valentine's Day.

Not to be outdone, LtDan opted to book us a room at the Omni Mandalay hotel (I wrote about this world class hotel here ... we decided it's our favorite DFW hotel) and we had a lovely dinner and night out on the town on Valentine's Eve.  Our room overlooked the Mandalay Canal, and we watched gondolas ferry couples across the water, no doubt on romantic Valentines dates themselves.

We had a dreamy dinner at Trevi's, where the culinary staff worked hearts and exquisite flavor into every course.

Sunday afternoon we browsed the Southwest Gallery.  This gallery is warm and welcoming, and not a place where you feel intimidated by all the high brow art.  Not surprisingly, a lot of what's offered has a southwestern flair.

The art experience begins in the parking lot, which is surrounded by exuberant and lively sculptures.  I wanted to take the gardening lady home with me.  

Inside the gallery are paintings, sculptures, and jewelry.

The piece below is called Ex Nihilo (Out of Nothing) and is a piece over a cathedral door.  The artist is the same one who did the sculpture of the three VietNam soldiers at the VietNam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The paintings were grouped in collections by artist, and I'm embarrassed to say I didn't note names to give credit where credit is very much due, but you can see some of them in the pictures.  It was wonderful to stand and take in all the beauty.

I loved all the bright and happy colors of this artist!

This was one of my favorites ...

We were so excited to see Dale Terbush's art displayed; it's as beautiful as we remembered it and each piece draws you in to be contemplated and experienced.  I was so busy enjoying the artwork, I didn't take many pictures of his paintings.  

 It's impossible to do justice to these paintings with a photograph, let me assure you.  We were happy to see Mr. Terbush has definitely not lost his talent since our first exposure to him more than twenty years ago.  Our $57.64 was definitely well spent :o)

If you're in the DFW area and want to explore the Southwestern Gallery, see their website }here{.  It's a beautiful way to spend a few hours!