First Day of Stay-cation

Yay! It's my first day of stay-cation! I'm taking one week off from work to hang out in Los Angeles. L.A. is a tourist destination, you know!

Day One - Museum and lunch with my cousin Amie. Amie's birthday was at the end of June, mine is on Friday. We like to have lunch and celebrate. Today we went to the L.A. County Museum of Art (LACMA) to see the "David Hockney: 82 Portraits and One Still Life" exhibit. 

The exhibit was quite impressively staged. All of the paintings have cool-color backgrounds. These pieces, placed against terra-cotta walls, provided a striking contrast. Most of the subjects were either good friends or acquaintances of Hockney's. Amie read that the people that Hockney REALLY knew had more realized features in the paintings. We did notice that he was more expert at painting men than women. Also, Hockney was excellent at painting everyone's SHOES!

The one still-life in the exhibit

We visited one more exhibit, "In the Fields of Empty Days: The Intersection of Past and Present in Iranian Art."  The images are amazing...a cross between vintage and classic Iranian figures with the trappings of today's pop culture. Really, you have to see these paintings in person to appreciate them fully!

Amie at the Hockney Exhibit, LACMA

We drove over to the very trendy La Brea Avenue and had lunch at Sycamore Kitchen. We had a lovely lunch. Amie ordered the chicken salad on toast and I ordered the cured salmon with hard-cook eggs on toast. We split, half and half. It was yummy. I definitely want to return for breakfast one day!

The baked goods looked fantastic!

Chicken Salad on Toast

Cured Salmon on Toast

Today was an excellent beginning to my stay-cation! Thanks, Amie!