Summertime is Time to Travel. The Wonders We Will See!

Being up to my neck in large scale projects this week—and for quite a few more to come— it's been easy to let days slide away, but I'm determined to attempt to maintain some regular connections.

Before any more time goes by, I have to alert VIEW's readers to two amazing shows currently on display in the Northeast corner of the US. The first is from some folks I'm proud to call friends, Pat and Jeannie Wilshire of Illuxcon fame have guest curated an exhibit now on display at the Allentown Art Museum in PA.

At the Edge is a show unlike any other I've ever known to have been assembled. It contains the best in "fantastic" art, (in the sense of "fantastical") from nearly 150 years ago up to the best Imaginative Realist painters going today. The list is mind-blowing. While the current crop of top illustrators makes an annual appearance at Illuxcon and is well represented in this show, it is the historical (i.e. "vintage")  stuff that this blog focuses on— and WOW, they've pulled some masterworks out from private collections (The Kelly Collection, and The Korshak Collection, and others). This is an extraordinary opportunity to see some outstanding pieces, from many of the artists that we discuss here with some regularity. Shown at the right, Dean Cornwell, Wladyslaw Benda, Edmund Dulac, J. C. Leyendecker and Franklin Booth... All in one place. Thanks to the Wilshires for permission to repost those images here on VIEW.

The Allentown show runs until September 9th, and appears to be continually hosting lectures by the biggest and the best. The Wilshires themselves will be there this Sunday, to present  a lecture on the imagery of the fantastic—Imagining Reality with Pat and Jeannie Wilshire (Roger Dean will be there a week from now...)  They are doing so much to help fantastic imagery get the respect it deserves. Worth a vacation day, for sure.

AND IF THAT'S NOT ENOUGH

The Howard Pyle Centennial exhibit is showing again, now located at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge Mass.

If you weren't able to make it when it was at the Delaware Art Museum, It will be in Mass. until October 28th. I posted some comments on the show when I first saw it, but I am planning on seeing it at the Rockwell also.

Time to hit the road.