This is the latest entry in my Humanities blog here at Palo Alto College. This essay will cover some of the art work that we have here in San Antonio Texas. San Antonio is a place where we have many nice local galleries for art and sculpture. In addition to the galleries here we also have a growing artist community that show off their work downtown. The place I chose to go to for my assignment was the Mcnay art museum. This gallery was once the residence of one of the most prominent women in San Antonio. Mrs. Mcnay the resident of this estate was an avid art collector and when she passed she willed her house to be made into an art gallery. She had quite a collection that served as the base for the artwork that would be shown here. Since opening five decades ago, the McNay Art Museum continues to build on an already strong collection of 19th- and 20th-century European and American paintings and sculpture by significant artists ranging from Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Auguste Rodin, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso, to Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, John Sloan, and Marsden Hartley. In addition to the impressive collection of artwork here the grounds are beautiful. So beautiful in fact that many people here in San Antonio choose the Mcnay as the site for their wedding pictures. I really enjoyed my visit here and now I would like to discuss two pieces I saw here that really caught my eye.

The first painting I liked was Corn Hill by Edward hopper and this painting is oil on canvas and was done in 1930. Edward Hopper was an American painter and printmaker. His works represented light as it is reflected off of familiar objects. While most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching. This work shows two European villas on top of a big hill in the European countryside. Just as Hopper was known for this portrait is full of light and it shows the effect of the sun on colors in this landscape. You have different color grasses on the hills and a real nice contrast in the painting with the clear blue sky. This is a very nice painting and I really enjoyed seeing this piece. Another piece that I saw at the Mcnay was Women crossing the fields by Vincent Van Gough. This piece was done in 1890 and is oil on paper. Van Gough was a Dutch Post-Impressionist artist.[1] His paintings and drawings include some of the world's best known, most popular and most expensive pieces. You already may be familiar with some of Van Gough’s art such as starry night which is probably his most famous work. This work has that distinct Van Gough look and I was very happy to be able to see works by such famous artist right here in my own city. This was a very fun trip and I look forward to coming back to the Mcnay to see some of the exhibits that are coming soon to the Mcnay.