More Pictures from The Paine Art Museum and Garden

Redbud in full bloom, always a treat, as we are on the edge of their zone here in central Wisconsin.

Virginia bluebells out-maneuvering dandelions, yay bluebells!

Pretty soulianga magnolia  blooming with a red leaf plum for backdrop.

A dainty mulitflora daffodil

Woodland path, with a perspective that seems much more distant.  This path narrows from four feet to about two feet in a would guess less than 16 feet.  It wides out again at the bend.  It is carefully constructed visually.

Bottlebrush buckeye (I think!)  This is so not part of the trees you see in my zone.  It looks like some magical tutti-frutti candy.

There's not a lot of sculpture in this relatively small garden.  No clue who this might be.  Handsome Son thinks "a Paine, who must have been a pain to have this head done" and placed in the garden.  (He thinks he's a life comedian.)

"Really, Mom?" 

Back of the Paine House, Handsome Son asks if chemists can make enough to have a house and garden like these.  "Maybe a small portion of the house, and then you could work on the garden."  I hold my hands making a small viewfinder for him.

Coming: More pictures from the Paine later this week.

Sunday in Pictures: Tulips in Bloom at The Paine

More From the Paine: Secret Gardens and Hidden Views

Wowza, baby! That hair!



On this Cristmas Day, some beautiful late summer pictures from Oshkosh's "castle", home of "The Nutcracker Suite".




From the oh, so elegant Paine...

The Paine sits on less than a half a city block. It has no parking lot and depends on on-street parking for its visitors. Most of the Paine has 8' iron gating or a stucco wall around the perimeter. This limits the intrusion of any of Oshkosh's city elements; noise, traffic, other buildings, to all but one corner where the view of a second floor Tudor style house is evident over the rose garden.

Merry Holidays to all!

Paine Art Center and Museum in Oshkosh

The Paine (along with the Oshkosh Museum) are Oshkosh's castles. It was built as a huge stone residences of one of Oshkosh's lumber barons. Located just on the Fox River and lived in a scant few years, it was then donated to the city. Walled and gated it has retained it elegance.

It houses the small permanent collection of the Paine family's art, along with being the venue for small intimate performances of scenes from the Nutcracker Suite each Christmas (along with a Nutcracker exhibition and story display). It also serves as a rental venue for weddings, elegant parties, and occasionally hosts traveling art exhibitions as it is now doing for the Ansel Adams display.

The Ansel Adams were very nice, although I have been watching the photographic talent of an artist to my north here in Wisconsin and I have to say how similar in style and depth is her work.

Even a urn on a pedestal, properly placed, is picture-worthy. Nothing particularly exciting about the planted material!

There were several plants that point up that Oshkosh, 30 miles away is about a half a zone warmer than here and that the city asphalt is goosing them for two to three degrees. This is one, this well-grown Harry Lauder Walking Stick, filbert contortus. The others included a tri-color beech, Japanese silver grass, and oak leaf hydrangea.







There were lots of hidden views, elegant plants, and the front border of bedded annuals extending across the entire front view.