The frugal travels of a vagabond

The Charge, Frederic Remington, 1906; this commissioned work for the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York City is Remington's largest work; the moneyed crowd in the Grille Room had this scene as their backdrop

Farrah Fawcett, Andy Warhol, 1980; this icon of my childhood attended UT before going on to star in Charlie's Angels; I remember her death from cancer at 62 was overshadowed because she died the same day as Michael Jackson

Variations on a Rhythm - G, Raymond Jonson, 1931; in 1994, Mari Sabusawa, wife of James Michener, gave $5 million for construction of a new museum complex, the first dedicated space for the museum's permanent collection since its founding

Jerry Bywaters, Oil Field Girls, 1940; the Blanton's permanent collection of more than 18,000 works is recognized for its European paintings, prints and drawings, and modern and contemporary American and Latin American art

Romance, Thomas Hart Benton, 1931-32; gifted to the museum by the Micheners, I was pleasantly surprised to see the artist using African Americans as his featured models in this work at a time when African-American representation in American art was minimal

In January 2015, the artist Ellsworth Kelly gave the Blanton the design concept for a 2,715-sq ft stone building that he subsequently named Austin; admission to Austin is included with the $12 museum ticket

Still Life of Flowers in a Glass Vase, Bartolome Perez, ca. 1670s; flowers are often represented in paintings to remind the viewer of the ephemeral nature of beauty, wealth, and worldly pleasures; the glass vase adds to the sense of fragility

Saint Bernard, anonymous French, ca. 1470; this painting presents an unflattering but very realistic portrayal of an elderly man through the artist's meticulous depiction of wrinkles, veins, warts and graying hair

Jacob Asking for Laban, Francesco Castiglione, ca. 1660-1710; depictions of keenly observed animals were typical of Genoese paintings of this era; I was very impressed with his ability to accurately capture the facial expressions on the animals

A Love Supreme, Summer, Sedrick Huckaby, 2001-09; this monumental work is one of a series of 4 quilt paintings representing the 4 seasons and titled after the landmark 1965 album by John Coltrane

New York at Night, Max Weber, 1915; Weber was one of the first American artists to fully synthesize the principles of European modernism and adapt them to a specifically American subject matter

Head of a Young Man, Peter Paul Rubens, 1601-02; considered to be one of the pioneers of Baroque art, Rubens was highly sought after during his lifetime; this study is among his earliest oil sketches

Ellsworth Kelly's Austin reminded me of a more vibrant, colorful rendering of the Rothko Chapel in Houston; the Rothko's setting is more peaceful while Austin is set in the middle of the sprawling UT campus

Temptation Island, Emily Mae Smith, 2019; Smith's work often bridges art history and popular culture to explore gender politics and representation; with sly symbolism, Smith conjures the dangers and decadence of a reimagined Garden of Eden

The Golden Hour, Thomas Moran, 1875; founded in 1963, the Blanton is one of the largest university art museums in the country; in 2006, the museum expanded with the addition of the Mari and James A. Michener building

Indian Canoe, Albert Bierstadt, ca. 1886; a follower of German Romanticism, the artist uses the sun setting behind a lone Indian as a signal of the looming decline of Native Americans' traditional way of life

Titled Austin, honoring Ellsworth Kelly's tradition of naming works for the places for which they are destined, the structure is the only building the artist designed, and will be his most lasting legacy

The Blue Boy, Thomas Gainsborough, ca. 1770; the most famous painting here, The Blue Boy was loaned to the National Gallery, London, on January 25 2022, exactly a century since it left the UK; it was scheduled to remain in London for 5 months before returning to the US

Once the house of Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and his second wife, Arabella (1850–1924), the Huntington Art Gallery opened in 1928 displaying one of the greatest collections of 18th-century British art in the country

The Huntington holds the manuscript of Ben Franklin's autobiography, Isaac Newton's personal copy of his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica with annotations in Newton's own hand and the first 7 drafts of Henry David Thoreau's Walden

The Huntington has 1 of 12 surviving copies on vellum of the Gutenberg Bible, the jewel of the 2nd-largest collection of incunabula (15th-century printed books) in the US; it also has the 15th-century Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

George Washington, Gilbert Stuart, 1797; Washington sat for 3 portraits by Stuart with the artist then reproducing the paintings dozens of times (that might explain why all art museums seem to have a similar painting)

Portrait of a Young Gentleman, Kehinde Wiley, 2021; this commissioned work reconceives Gainsborough's The Blue Boy as the Huntington celebrates the 100th anniversary of the purchase of The Blue Boy by Henry and Arabella Huntington

The Huntington is a much sought-after location for weddings for the wealthy in surrounding San Marino and Pasadena; with an endowment of $535+ million, the Huntington is one of the wealthiest museums in the country

Banjo Clock, Aaron Willard, ca. 1810-20; first developed and patented in 1801 by Aaron's brother, these clocks were simply designed and manufactured making them affordable to an ever-expanding American middle class

The Japanese Garden was completed in 1912 by the same designer who created the Japanese Tea Garden in SF's Golden Gate Park; due to Covid, when I visited in October 2021 many of the art galleries here were still closed

As a landowner, Henry Edwards Huntington played a major role in the growth of Southern California; he was the nephew and heir of Collis P. Huntington, one of the famous Big Four railroad tycoons of 19th century CA history

Liu Fang Yuan, or the Garden of Flowing Fragrance, is one of the finest classical-style Chinese gardens outside of China; filled with Chinese plants and framed by exquisite architecture, the landscape is enriched with references to literature and art

Early 18th century spinning wheel and Lone Star Appliqued Chintz and Pieced Quilt, Mary Seeds Moon, ca. 1840; fabrics had to be imported in early America making them relatively expensive whereas domestic wool could be turned into thread on a spinning wheel

Rose Garden; when Henry Huntington moved to Southern CA, he purchased a property of 500+ acres then known as the San Marino Ranch and went on to purchase other large tracts of land in the Pasadena and LA areas for urban and suburban development

Patsy Cline hybrid tea rose; as president of the regional streetcar and public transit system for the LA area, Henry Huntington spearheaded urban and regional transportation efforts to link together far-flung communities

For more than a century, the historic Japanese Garden has been one of the most beloved and iconic landscapes at The Huntington, with its distinctive moon bridge, picture-postcard views of koi-filled ponds and the historic Japanese House

Italian Cypress Bonsai; the 130 acres of gardens are divided into many themes, including Australian Garden, Camellia Collection, Children's Garden, Desert Garden, Herb Garden, Japanese Garden, Lily Ponds, Shakespeare Garden, and the Chinese Garden

The Japanese Garden, set along a canyon to the south of the Chinese Garden, comprises a traditional Japanese house, a moon bridge, a walled Zen garden, bonsai courts, and Seifu-an, a ceremonial teahouse and garden

The museum's 16,000 sq ft conservatory comprises three different habitats (a lowland tropical rain forest, a cloud forest, and a carnivorous plant bog) with almost annual bloomings for the odiferous corpse flower

Sarah Goodin Barrett Moulton: Pinkie, Thomas Lawrence, 1794; Pinkie was raised in Jamaica before being sent to England for schooling; her grandmother commissioned this famous painting to ease the child's absence

Eastlake Style Ladies Writing Desk, ca 1870s-1890s; the Mobile Museum of Art, in the city's largest green space - Langan Park, was founded in 1963; it has grown from 14,000 sq ft to its current size of 95,000 sq ft

Kangaroo, Leo Sewell, 1999; Mobilians used to throw boxes of Cracker Jack from their Mardi Gras floats but switched to MoonPies in the early 1970s because they're safer, with no sharp edges

Minding her Flock, James Jacques Joseph Tissot, 1877; the collection of European art was disappointing with few works by artists I'd heard of; the pieces tended to be dark and not ones that you'd post on Instagram

Lap Robe, Crazy Quilt Style, Members of the Prescott Family, ca, 1890; before he became mega famous, a young Elvis Presley performed at the Greater Gulf State Fair in Mobile in 1955

Wanda the Wonder Woman Table, Dale A. Lewis, 1994; during WWII the population of Mobile more than doubled in three years due to the influx of people coming to work in the shipyards

Celery Chair with Carrots, Peppers and Sno Pea, Craig Nutt, 1993; I thought this chair was perfect for my vegetarian friends!; I just wish there was a dining room table to accompany the chairs

When I entered and saw this policy I asked for the rationale; since my cell phone has no available storage, I spoke to the security manager and explained how the policy made no sense; a new museum policy allowing SLR cameras was drafted before I left!

Old Man Reading, Thomas Hart Benton, 1941; azaleas, the flowers Mobile is famous for, first came to the city from France in 1754; Mobile is home to the world's largest public tennis facility, the Mobile Tennis Center, which contains more than 50 courts

Coiled Storage Jar (Olla), Apache, ca. 1907; it has to be challenging for an art museum to thrive in a smallish city like Mobile when the price of artworks is so high; this museum has expanded largely through bequests

Petroglyphic Urn with Horn, William Morris, 1991; the European settlement of Mobile began with French colonists, who in 1702 constructed Fort Louis de la Louisiane, as the first capital of the French colony of La Louisiane

Donut Teapot (Montery sic Green Color), Hall China, 1938; on New Year's Eve, Mobile drops the world's largest 600lb electric Moon Pie!; during the street party, you can also dig into the world’s largest edible Moon Pie

Still Life with Bananas and Apples, Mark Rothko, 1928; Mobile is pronounced 'mo-beel' and not like the word you use to describe a cellular device; it's possible to travel by boat from Mobile to the Great Lakes entirely on inland waterways

CAT, Bruce Larsen, 2018; this metal sculpture by an Alabama native was for sale at $2600; he is apparently very well known (just not by me) for his works made from recycled materials of animals and athletes

The Last Comer from the Last Planet, Salvador Dali, 1974; in the film 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' when Gregory Peck says 'Why, the gardens at Bellingrath have nothing to compare with your flowers' to a neighbor he's referring to Mobile's Bellingrath Gardens

Portrait of Frederic Joliot-Curie, Pablo Picasso, 1959; the famous battle cry, 'Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!' was bellowed in the waters of Mobile Bay by Union Admiral David G. Farragut in 1864 during the Battle of Mobile Bay

Mounted Police Stable, Robert Riggs, 1938; best known for his lithographs of prizefights and circus scenes, I had to include this work due to our similar names (he lived in roughly the same era as another Robert Riggs that famously played tennis)

The State Botanical Garden of Georgia sits on 313 acres a few miles from the University of Georgia although it is operated by the university; admission and parking are both free

Island Romance Orchid; the Porcelain and Decorative Arts Museum opened adjacent to the conservatory in 2021 but was closed when I visited although what I could see from outside made it look worth seeing

This was my first visit to Athens with early March clearly not the best time of year in which to view the gardens; five miles of nature trails explore different native plant habitats with some frontage on the Middle Oconee River

Tazetta daffodils; the various species of daffodils were about the only flowers blooming so early in the season although some tulips were starting to appear; most plant species were identified which I found very helpful

The University of Georgia's College of Journalism administers the Peabody Awards, known as the Pulitzer Prize for broadcasters; Athens, population 127315, is also known for it's music scene famous for acts such as the Indigo Girls, REM, and the B-52s

Vanda Judy Miyamoto Orchid; the orchid family contains between 22,000 and 26,000 accepted species with more than 100,000 hybrids developed by horticulturists; orchids occur in almost every habitat - from the tropics to above the Arctic Circle

The Collegiate NCAA Tennis Hall of Fame is located on the University of Georgia campus in the Dan Magill Tennis Complex, which is also the semi-permanent home of the Men's NCAA Tennis Championships

Magnificent Magnolias, carved wood by Cindy Lewis and Mark Holland; Berckmans' Orchard, named for the founder of the Georgia State Horticultural Society, featured heirloom fruits of the South

There was a myriad of small gardens with different themes such as shade, international, native flora, herb, physic, heritage and flower; Athens is located about 70 miles east of Atlanta

The peach trees were starting to blossom which were spectacular to see as I drove across southern Georgia with the many orchards there; a few weeks later there was a very hard freeze so I worry about this year's crop

Chartered by the Georgia General Assembly on Jan. 27, 1785, the University of Georgia is America's first state chartered university; I didn't find the campus very attractive from my brief drive and felt reassured in my choice of the University of Houston

The Alice H. Richards Children's Garden is one of the newest additions; this 2.5 acre garden features a granite map of the state, an edible garden and a sensory garden and hosts many birthday parties where kids can learn and have fun at the same time

Orglade's Mandarin Orchid; Athens is the home of America's first garden club, the Ladies Garden Club of Athens founded in 1891; the State Botanical Garden is also the home of the Garden Club of Georgia headquarters

The sculpture at the top of the photo is entitled Sunflower Gate; it was obvious from the infrastructure that the gardens are well-funded with top-notch facilities

Glass Yellow Lady's Slipper; special events at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia include the Sunflower Music Series during the summer months, other live music performances, and nature rambles and workshops

View of Rome and the Coliseum (sic), John Linton Chapman, ca. 1860; the Stebbins Collection features paintings from America's Gilded Age, a generally optimistic period, when huge fortunes were made and great mansions and art collections built

Vegetables on a White Tablecloth, William Oscar Roelecke, 1889; the Stebbins Collection wasn't very broad, covering just a few decades, but did have depth, especially with still-lifes which I appreciate

Apple Blossoms, William M. Davis, ca. 1862; Theodore Stebbins Jr was the Curator of American Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston for decades; he was college roommates with future Senator John Heinz III at Yale

Arcadia, Thomas Eakins, 1883; this work ranks as Eakins sculptural masterpiece, and it was his own favorite sculpture; Eakins's finished sculptures were done in relief representing the artist's merging of painting and sculpture

Citrus Fruits, James H. Cafferty, ca. 1850s; the realism depicted here was almost certainly due to creative license since citrus, at this time, had to travel from the Mediterranean; citrus from Florida would not begin until the turn of the 20th century

Fifth Corps, Army of the Potomac, Alfred R. Waud, ca. 1863-64; Waud was one of only two artists present at the Battle of Gettysburg with his depiction of Pickett's Charge thought to be the only visual account by an eyewitness

Cherries, Joseph Decker, 1886; the Stebbins Collection amassed a wealth of realistic fruit still-lifes at a time when European painters were adopting the Impressionist style and embracing landscape painting

Mixed Flowers in a White Vase, Martin Johnson Heade, 1861; this painting appears very realistic but that's just the artist's interpretation since he has included flowers from Malaysia and Europe that, at this time, could not be alive together

Cyrus, Frederic Edwin Church, 1883; this master of romantic landscapes from around the world takes on a more domestic subject here, the family pet; you sometimes see dogs in paintings of this era but seldom a cat

An Orange with Strawberries and Currants on a Table, Paul Lacroix, ca. 1860s; the pyramidal arrangement of the fruit recalls the still-life compositions of Raphaelle Peale and the other painters of his family

Master Draper, Ignaz Gaugengigl, ca. 1907-09; this Bavarian-born artist emigrated to Boston where he primarily painted portraits of the wealthy Boston Brahmins and their families

Red Plums, Purple Plums, Levi Wells Prentice, ca. 1890s; this is one of Prentice's largest and most beautifully handled works, in which there is little evidence of his self-taught beginnings

Calla Lilies, George Cochran Lambdin, 1874; widely regarded as one of Lambdin's masterpieces, this is a work of heightened realism, devoid of context and background to amplify the stoic beauty of the subject matter

Apples and Plums, John William Hill, 1874; this incredible painting was created with translucent watercolors, not oils as you might think; the artist created textures through a stippling and hatching technique

Hanging Bunch of Grapes, Morston Constantine Ream, 1880; this is a unique work in the artist's oeuvre since his typical compositions were tightly detailed pictures of fruit, wine glasses and the like on tabletops, in the Dutch tradition