December 2025
VIENNA!!!! If you look up the top art museum cities in Europe, you’ll see Vienna on almost every list. I knew that it was home to Egon Schiele and Klimt, but I had no idea that there is SO much more! So Scott and I spent Christmas Eve on a long flight over the Atlantic to see what we could find. For about two weeks prior to our trip I researched the heck out of the museums because I didn’t want to miss a thing, and I don’t think we did :)
We landed around 11:30 a.m. local time, dropped off our bags and went straight to the Albertina. The Albertina is probably best known for its Albrecht Durer works, but because those are on paper and date back to the early 1500s, they are rarely on view. But we found plenty to entertain us. Their Batliner Collection is solid: Matisse, Oskar Kokoschka, Munch, Picasso, Monet and more. They also had a special Gothic Art exhibition with lots of skulls, including this bad boy from Vincent Van Gogh, on loan from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
Next to Van Gogh’s skull was this painting by Arnold Bocklin, “Self Portrait With Death Playing the Fiddle.” There was a plaque on the wall reminding us that symbols of death have been used in paintings for years. It reminds us of life’s transience and fragility. It also reminds us that money, power and beauty are only brief pleasures. We never know how long we have on Earth, so go make the best of it. You might hear these paintings referred to as vanitas or memento mori paintings.
And just to the right of that painting was Edward Munch’s self portrait. Did you notice the arm bone at the very bottom? I’m slowly becoming a Munch fan. We saw so many of his landscapes in Vienna and they’re good, lots of thick, juicy paint.
And I don’t know why, but this painting really stuck with me. It’s so unusual. I absolutely loved it.
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The next morning we headed to the Kunsthistoriches Museum of Art (KMA). I knew this would be a great museum, but I had no idea just how great it is. The architecture is insane AND there is a famous Viennese cafe in the lobby. Because I’d done my research, I knew we had to have a reservation and thank goodness we did. The line was nuts and people were acting a’fool outside. The “influencers in the wild” are completely out of control at KMA.
The coffee drink in Vienna is the melange, similar to a cappuccino but layered with more of a chocolatey, nutty flavor. The traditional Viennese breakfast was good, but honestly, this was more about the setting.
OK, let’s dig into the galleries. The showstopper galleries were the Rubens, Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Velazquez rooms. I could’ve spent all day in just those rooms. Rubens was easily my favorite, and I’ve seen a lot of his paintings, but the ones in KHM hit different. I just ordered a biography about him so hopefully that will help me understand him better.
The next big surprise was the Michaelina Wautier special exhibition and it blew my stinkin mind. Michaelina is a relatively new discovery in the art history world. Most scholars attributed her work to her brother, but they most definitely did not paint the same way.
Michaelina’s on the right is OUT OF THIS WORLD. The tenderness, the finesse, the richness, the glow, the human element, the hair … I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.
There were so many paintings on view, I was in heaven. And then I saw her self portrait and found myself getting all teary. The bravery it took to paint this, so large, so bold, so confident. OMG.
From the wall label: “By portraying herself at the easel, Wautier showed self confidence as an artist. Like Rubens, she poses before a classical column in order to assert her intellectuality. With her painting stick she points towards a pocket watch, as if to stress that becoming a skilled painter takes time. From the mid-sixteenth century, female painters emancipated themselves as pioneers in this sort of self portrait. Their male peers soon followed suit.” I was all choked up after reading that. Love her!!
How about some Rembrandt and Franz Hals? Yes, please.
But my very favorite of the day may have been from Arcimboldo:
1566. That’s when these were painted. Just let that sink in. Tell me what’s better. I’ll wait.
That night we went to the Vienna State Opera House and saw the performance of Hansel & Gretel.
We’d never been to an opera before and I guess now we’re spoiled because this setting was just incredible. Unfortunately my fear of heights kicked in so I had to sit a little further back and stand up, but it was so worth it. 10 outta 10.
The next morning we visited the Heidi Horten Collection. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. This museum is a little off the radar for most tourists, thankfully, so it was a complete 180 from KHM.
Before our trip I was not a huge Klimt fan. I think sometimes when you see a painting over and over and over again (The Kiss) and it’s used in so many cheesy ways, it loses its power. Well, the truth is that you cannot go anywhere in Vienna without being bombarded with images of Klimt and Egon Schiele’s art. And once I saw a Klimt up close and personal, I found them irresistible.
When I studied art history with Donna Sadler she taught us the 8 principles of art: balance, proportion, emphasis, variety, harmony, unity, movement and rhythm. Look at the landscape above. Klimt aces them all. (More Klimt paintings coming and you’ll see it again and again)
Heidi Horten also collected a lot of high quality Basquiat and Warhols, but my favorite was one of their collaborations featuring a Paramount logo.
I also enjoyed the special exhibition called Die Linie (The Line), which showcases how artists have used line to tell a story in a multitude of ways. It was fantastic.
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| Artist: Fred Eerdekens |
After our visit with Heidi we went over to MUMOK, a modern museum in the Museum Quartiers.
There was a pretty cool black and white exhibition of work by an artist named Tobias Pils. It was definitely a reminder that I want to spend time with pen and ink in 2026.
Every time I look at this picture I crack up. I had my phone open because well, I was pretty much taking pictures of *everything* and we stumbled across this group. It’s probably posed, but I don’t care. It’s so funny. This is what happens in a modern art museum. You can never be sure what’s toilet paper and what’s art :) hahahahaha.
The next day we saw a different part of the city because we had lunch reservations at the world famous restaurant, Figlmuller. Schnitzels the size of hubcaps! Lingonberry jam! World’s best potato salad! So good!
And then it was back to the Museum Quartiers for a trip to the Leopold Museum. The Leopold is famous for its outstanding collection of Schiele and Klimt holdings and it did not disappoint.
Do you see the 8 principles of art in this painting??? Phenomenal, truly an exceptional painting.
Scott gave me some Egon Schiele books for Christmas/Anniversary and I copied a bunch of them before our trip. Standing just a few feet away from one of his monumental pieces and sketching a small portion of it was truly a moment.
You’ll never guess who painted this … Gustav Klimt!
The story is as old as time itself. An artist goes to art school, studies in the traditional, academic way and eventually finds his/her unique voice. That’s what happened with Klimt (and so many more!). This painting is a study of light. I think this is when I fell in love.
Klimt and his buddy Egon Schiele were sick of the academic bullshit and wanted to express themselves in their own way, so they seceded. And this, too, is a tale as old as time itself. Monet and crew did the exact same thing in the mid 1800s. You can read more about their Salon des Refusés here.
At this point in our trip we were eagerly waiting for my friend Brandi and her husband to roll into the Vienna train station from Germany. And finally they did and we met for dinner at a very cool Scandinavian restaurant called Hemma.
It was so good - and - we wrapped things up with a round of Schnapps with dessert!
Our last day of vacay was spent at The Belvedere and it was also packed with Klimt and Schiele paintings. I can never have enough. It was so much fun geeking out on art with Brandi. Our tastes are very similar and I also love that she catches things that I sometimes miss.
The Messerschmidt character heads were scattered throughout the museum, and I just love them.
There was also a killer Jacques Louis David painting of Napoleon crossing the Alps. I remember studying this one with Donna Sadler. And it was fun to revisit those conversations with Brandi. Major proportion issues!
How can Napoleon’s hat be the same size as his horse’s head? Of course, this was a propaganda piece, commissioned by Napoleon himself. He had David paint 5 versions, all highly stylized, intended to show Napoleon’s bravery and strength of character. I read a little bit more about the painting and found this line: “ In reality the crossing had been made in fine weather and Bonaparte had been led across by a guide mounted on a mule.”
Don’t you just love art history??? So good.
We also studied this painting by Gustav Klimt and at one point Brandi said, “Ya know, it kinda looks like Sargent’s Madame X painting!” Let’s look at them side by side. What do you think??
The most famous painting at The Belvedere, though is none other than … The Kiss! It is the Mona Lisa of the Belvedere, so don’t think for one second you’re going to get a decent photo of it. Years ago I read that this poster was in more young women’s college dorm rooms than any other work of art. I had no clue who Klimt was in 1984. I can promise you that.
That night we had dinner with Brandi and Dylan, woke up the next morning and celebrated our anniversary by traveling 19 hours home. Yes, that’s how long it took to get home. Worth it, but completely exhausting.
MEANWHILE BACK HOME …
I spent a good bit of time getting organized and setting goals. A few years ago I made a huge pile of old paintings that needed to go and called it Mount Shituvius. I don’t know how many paintings I threw away but it was probably between 200-300.
It feels so good to move past these paintings and press forward with more knowledge! Ahhh!
Another task for this month was to get more organized at my studio, so I hired a handyman through Task Rabbit. I’d never used that service before so I was a little nervous, but everything worked out so well. My guy built custom shelves for both of my studio closets! Why didn’t I do this sooner?!
There’s nothing worse than having two spacious closets that you can’t use because there are no shelves. That’s a bummer. So now I have all of my oil and acrylic paints organized by color in one closet and the other closet is filled with pastels, panels and shipping supplies. OMG it feels so good. Sometimes I just sit there with both closet doors open and admire it all. LOL.
I met with my painting coach to review 5-6 recent paintings, some from the Don Demers workshop. Initially I questioned whether we should discuss gray paintings and then I realized - um, yeah, we definitely need to cover how to paint on gray days. Eye opening! I swear, every time I think about what it took for me to meet my coach - at the exact right time … it blows my mind. I am so lucky to have him as a source of knowledge and support.
I’m also using this quiet time to rack up docent tours. Each time I give a tour I try to add in a painting or object that I haven’t presented before. This helps me be flexible but also helps me learn more about what’s on view. We have a big year ahead with the 100th anniversary of the museum coming up. It’s definitely an exciting time at the museum.
2025 Memorable Moments
There were a lot of high highs and low lows this year. One of the lowest lows was saying goodbye to our baby JuJu in March. I still miss him so much.
Larry Moore’s workshop was a big moment, a huge step forward in terms of seeing differently, but also permission to paint my way.
And of course, we adopted two new babies: Winston and Louis. I wouldn’t say that Louis is calm, but I’ll say he is calm…er :)
My plein air adventures were also a mixed bag. It’s hard to explain but I feel like I try to make myself enjoy plein air events and the truth is that I don’t love it. My dream scenario would be for me to go out plein air painting by myself anytime of the day or night and paint, but as a woman, I can’t do that. I love the serenity of being outside, painting alone, but it’s not safe. And I hate plein air events because of all the chatter, gossip, shit talking, lack of sales and judging. I hate it and I don’t know how to fix it. New Smyrna was excellent in terms of sales but things happened that week that were very disappointing, not art or sales related and it’s best that I don’t discuss them.
In terms of travel, the highlights were going to Houston, Boston, NYC, Birmingham and Vienna for museum trips. So fun.
But the very best thing that happened this year was Palmetto Bluff. Every single thing about PB was perfect, and I’m very grateful for it.
Right now I’m doing everything I can to make 2026 one for the record books. My focus for the year is getting better, getting smarter, honing in on what’s important to me versus what I’m “supposed to do” or what people expect. I don’t know how it will go but I’m working on it and I am hopeful.
COMING IN JANUARY
Back to teaching, back to docent tours, a figure drawing class, a trip to Palmetto Bluff and more.
Happy New Year!
LOUIS - WINNIE - OTIS
Our two little knuckleheads are setting in to their new lives as house cats. Louis is an intense snuggle monster at night, a sweet lap kitty in the afternoon and on squirrel patrol in the mornings. Winnie is still giving me finger and hand baths all night long. He is chonking up nicely! Curves in all the right places! And O-doggie is spending most of his days in the guest bedroom window working on his tan. We can’t have ornaments on the tree this year because Lou-Lou feels the need to scale the tree and knock them off. We’ll try again next year!
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