Art and films

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Geo: 43.5005, -72.3712

A cloudy day that started off with a fascinating tour of a sculptor's memorial centre - Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in New Hampshire. After lunch we had a tour of the studio of a documentary film maker. 

Then some shopping and food tasting at a notable local store. On return to our hotel we went for a 45min guided nature walk in the woods.  A good day.

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Photos

Augustus St-Gaudens, 1848-1907
St-Gaudens is a celebrated American sculptor who has a number of his heroic-sized works prominently displayed around USA. This bronze depicting members of the first black civil war regiment is considered his masterpiece. The story of the 54th Regiment is retold in the excellent 1989 movie, "Glory".
A stray fact that caught my attention is that St-Gaudens designed the $20 American Gold Eagle coin, one of which sold at auction not long ago for $7.5M, the record price paid for a coin.

Un-named
This piece was commissioned by a powerful man to be placed at his deceased wife's grave. They had been estranged and the brief was that the piece was not to look like the wife and it was not to be named. Augustus used several models and the resulting facial features are androgynous.

Covered wooden bridge, 1866
At one time this was the longest covered bridge in America. Bridges were covered for two reasons: most importantly to protect the wooden decking from the weather - the unprotected life was only a decade or two, and secondly to appear barn-like and quell the fears of skittish farm animals who were required to cross the river. The "Bridges of Madison County" movie was in Winterset, Iowa.

Ken Burns' studio
Burns is a celebrated maker of documentary films for America's Public Broadcasting Service. 30+ years ago he moved to the small village of Walpole, NH and set up shop here. We had a tour of his studio and were given an explanation of how a doco is made. Part of the presentation included a preview of his next film, an 18-hour series on Country Music, due for release in 2017.

Vermont Country Store
This is the owner's second store in Vermont. It prides itself on stocking (or obtaining) all manner of unusual and eclectic products. It was notable for the wide range of food freely available for sampling. From cheeses, sausage, dips, cookies, etc.

Colours emerge!
This hill is behind our hotel. We are told there are 200 houses and 50 condos situated here. The planning rules requiring brown house exteriors for camouflage are obviously successful.

Comments

[Morag]

Interesting read. Magnificent piece of work, such detail

[Morag]

Think you're telling porky-pies Selwyn! We cant see it so yes, obviously brilliant camouflage.