More Norton Simon

Whoever designed the garden is a painter, also.  Purple trees against pure green trees, large leaves against small leaves, a lily pad pond (Monet lives) and constrasting and complementary colors.  It was awe inspring and a wonderful place despite hearing the freeway close by. 

Natural lady with nude and bamboo.  A male friend, who has never said anything complimentary to me in his life, (a sure sign of friendship) asked what happened to my "beautiful, long red hair."   Time, honey.  Time.  That and living on a boat..........
Nearby is the Huntington Gardens/Library where other incredible paintings are displayed and the garden is huge.  I am more attracted to the scale of the NS as the layout is a painting with surprises around each curve.

Most young girls have a fascination with ballet - well, perhaps young girls from another age as Justin Beiber has taken over the young female consciousness.  I drew and sketched famous ballerinas  as an early teen and when cleaning out stuff for a move, found  drawings of Maria Tallchief and other famous ladies in my hopeless chest.  Degas had more than a fascination, and with the  amount of small statuary and paintings in the collection, it is safe to say he  was obsessed with them.  Or Norton Simon's curator was - as they dominate the Impressionists room.  We spent more time circlelling and staring at these until we looked like potential burglars.