Saturday, August 18, 2012

Stockbridge, MA, part 2

When some friends heard that we were going to Stockbridge for a few days, they didn't think there would be enough to do in the area.  They were so wrong!  There is plenty to do in addition to shopping in charming little stores that had mostly American made products, eating good food, walking the delightful streets with period houses and gorgeous gardens.  This was New England at its best.

You may know that Stockbridge was the home of Norman Rockwell, famous painter and illustrator.  The museum was very impressive and so much more than I expected.  We had a terrific docent and that always enhances the experience.  I don't have pictures of the museum; I suspect that they were not allowed, but I did get a picture of his studio, left just the way it was when he was using it.  He used residents of Stockbridge for his models and if you click on the picture you can see a photograph stuck in the side of the painting.
Be sure to click on any picture for a bigger view.


Another stop was Chesterwood, home, studio and woodland sculpture gardens of Daniel Chester French, world famous sculptor, mostly known for sculpting the enormous Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.  Again, no pictures allowed inside, where there was a huge prototype of the Lincoln Memorial.



We all loved the woodland scupture garden, covering many acres and having about 30 modern sculptures.  They were widely spaced along well marked trails






We could see this one from way in the distance, this shocking pink tree, amazingly lit by the sunlight through the trees. You'd swear there was a spotlight on it.




It just seemed to glow.

3 comments:

sue said...

We love Stockbridge....spent an anniversary at the Red Lion many years ago.....I remember the beds being dangerously high off the floor !! We always took visiting older relatives up there to see the sights and the Rockwell museum.....thanks for bringing back those memories.

Cindy Green said...

I've been meaning to get up there and do some looking around, but we've never gotten to it for some reason. Great photos and I love the new blog pages! Looks like you had a nice summer!

Vivien Zepf said...

I love hearing about your travels! I think I'm going to have to take a trip up to the Red Lion and all the surrounding area. What a great girls' weekend trip.