Artist Date with Louis Comfort Tiffany

Finally, I took a real Artist's Date. Between holidays I found myself with a free day and I had been waiting to visit the Tiffany exhibition of oil and watercolor paintings at the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn, New York.

Not many people are aware that Louis Comfort Tiffany painted besides designing stained glass windows and lamps. It seems he traveled to the Middle East and Egypt and painted during his visits. His watercolors were my favorites.

The museum allowed photographs without flash so I took a few of the works I liked best.

I was especially struck by the way he painted highlights, paying special attention to the play of sunlight on objects. Some darker works popped with the dappled highlights, really giving his paintings life.

This watercolor painting was special to me for the beautiful color of the endless sky against the sandy foreground with the small figures as an afterthought. How evenly he applied the color to the sky area. I was impressed.

This is one of the pieces of glass work in the exhibit. The colors and design are reminiscent of Tiffany's travels from his paintings. The museum had large glass panels and paintings Tiffany did with the Hudson school of artists, which were nice, but I liked his paintings of the Orient much better.

It was inspirational, to say the least.