Benini Foundation Galleries and Sculpture Ranch
March 29, 2008
The deer leaped over the fence like Michael Jordan going for a basket!
We have driven down US290 many times and have seen the chrome longhorn standing guard just outside Johnson City, but never imagined what was in the turn of the road. Thanks to Bob and Dolly we turned down and drove back about 5 miles and discovered an artist’s haven, the Benini Sculpture Ranch. Benini and guests’ sculptures line the two-mile drive. The large-scale pieces range from the realistic to the obscure. Vittoriana, cousin of Benini, flew in from Italy; she will be receiving an award today for her artwork. Inside the gallery were many paintings and all of them look like you could grab some part of the picture as it appears to be sticking out. He spent the 70’s painting roses. He was inspired by his grandmother’s garden in Italy. President Clinton used one of his paintings, L’ultima Rosa, at the White House when he announced the rose as the national flower in 1986. His mother later bought him the painting. Today he is working on new paintings he calls Continuous Kaos. We had the opportunity to meet Mr. Benini as we were leaving he was coming in. He reminded us of John Harley, especially in the picture of him taken at the garden of Leonardo DiVinci who he sort of looks like too.
We stopped at the Shops at Rocky Hill in Fredericksburg, another place we have past by many times. At the Bell Mountain Vineyards Tasting Room we picked up a bottle of Wildflower Honey wine. Then we walked around the Artisans Rocky Hill Gallery http://www.artisansatrockyhill.com/. We met Mrs. Barry Bradley whose husband has his woodwork on display. We loved they way he used tiny turquoise stones in the fissures of the wood. Other unique works included glass on glass done in a mosaic technique, pottery with beads, and frames filled with tiny keepsakes.
Picked up some supplies at Wal-Mart, enjoyed a Subway Italian hoagie and continued out of town…well before we got out of town we stopped at Rustlin’ Rob’s, a gourmet food store where you can sample everything they sell. You can look but not sample at http://www.rustlinrobs.com/
Knot-in-the-Loop is a Texas country bar with pictures of Texas famous cowboys, Indians, singers, nostalgia hanging on the walls. But we stopped there because Robin, the owner, has a white MR2 just like Kathy’s. We found the bar in 2005 driving the MR2 for a bit of a joyride. Robin still has her MR2, but recently backed it into her husband’s pickup truck so the fender is smashed. We enjoyed a beer and looked around. A young man attempted to toss a dollar to stick on the ceiling as we had done three years ago. It took him three tries; Kathy did it in one. You stick a tack through the dollar and hold a silver dollar on the tack and toss it up together. The tack sticks the dollar to the wood ceiling and the dollar falls to the floor to be used again.
From there we drove to Llano with the sun a bright round spot in the misty distance falling slowly into the hills. The river was pretty and the sky was turning pink. Our little spot along the river was taken along with everything close by because the Legion was having a benefit tonight. We drove on turning north on route 71 and found a nice nightspot on the side of the road several miles up.
The deer leaped over the fence like Michael Jordan going for a basket!We have driven down US290 many times and have seen the chrome longhorn standing guard just outside Johnson City, but never imagined what was in the turn of the road. Thanks to Bob and Dolly we turned down and drove back about 5 miles and discovered an artist’s haven, the Benini Sculpture Ranch. Benini and guests’ sculptures line the two-mile drive. The large-scale pieces range from the realistic to the obscure. Vittoriana, cousin of Benini, flew in from Italy; she will be receiving an award today for her artwork. Inside the gallery were many paintings and all of them look like you could grab some part of the picture as it appears to be sticking out. He spent the 70’s painting roses. He was inspired by his grandmother’s garden in Italy. President Clinton used one of his paintings, L’ultima Rosa, at the White House when he announced the rose as the national flower in 1986. His mother later bought him the painting. Today he is working on new paintings he calls Continuous Kaos. We had the opportunity to meet Mr. Benini as we were leaving he was coming in. He reminded us of John Harley, especially in the picture of him taken at the garden of Leonardo DiVinci who he sort of looks like too.
We stopped at the Shops at Rocky Hill in Fredericksburg, another place we have past by many times. At the Bell Mountain Vineyards Tasting Room we picked up a bottle of Wildflower Honey wine. Then we walked around the Artisans Rocky Hill Gallery http://www.artisansatrockyhill.com/. We met Mrs. Barry Bradley whose husband has his woodwork on display. We loved they way he used tiny turquoise stones in the fissures of the wood. Other unique works included glass on glass done in a mosaic technique, pottery with beads, and frames filled with tiny keepsakes.
Picked up some supplies at Wal-Mart, enjoyed a Subway Italian hoagie and continued out of town…well before we got out of town we stopped at Rustlin’ Rob’s, a gourmet food store where you can sample everything they sell. You can look but not sample at http://www.rustlinrobs.com/
Knot-in-the-Loop is a Texas country bar with pictures of Texas famous cowboys, Indians, singers, nostalgia hanging on the walls. But we stopped there because Robin, the owner, has a white MR2 just like Kathy’s. We found the bar in 2005 driving the MR2 for a bit of a joyride. Robin still has her MR2, but recently backed it into her husband’s pickup truck so the fender is smashed. We enjoyed a beer and looked around. A young man attempted to toss a dollar to stick on the ceiling as we had done three years ago. It took him three tries; Kathy did it in one. You stick a tack through the dollar and hold a silver dollar on the tack and toss it up together. The tack sticks the dollar to the wood ceiling and the dollar falls to the floor to be used again.
From there we drove to Llano with the sun a bright round spot in the misty distance falling slowly into the hills. The river was pretty and the sky was turning pink. Our little spot along the river was taken along with everything close by because the Legion was having a benefit tonight. We drove on turning north on route 71 and found a nice nightspot on the side of the road several miles up.
Comments
I check your blog every day and love your pictures. Keep up the good blogs and I will try to leave more comments. we went to the dog races and seen Silvia go out in style,,wire to wire..Blog to follow..
Love to you
Mary