Go uphill North to go down to the Hilbert Museum

We went to the City of Orange to see fabulously colorful super duper compositions of the paintings by California artists. And what ‘s really special is admission is free Tuesdays through Sat. open at 11 til 5 (They are closed Sundays and Mondays,). Just take the 5 to the 55 to Chapman and turn left. The charming city of Orange is a great place to paint with its picturesque old town feeling.

For lunch, walk across the parking lot to Ruby’s, right there to the museum . How easy is that? Lunch there is pretty good also.

It is 72 miles away from San Diego to see some of the famous California Landscape painters from the Hilbert Collection. They recently opened in 2016, and also have exhibits of other California artists.

The current exhibit lasts until March 31, 2018, in one area they show two surfer artists works and another gallery, with illustrations entitled “Children At Play.”. We especially enjoyed the exhibit on California Disney cell artists, their works from Pinocchio, Snow White, to Lady and the Tramp are exciting and fun seeing the background art with the cell on top for these iconic characters. Please mention my name when they ask you how you heard about it, if you do get to go to the Hilbert!

FYI- CORRECTION—- The Orange, CA train station is next door, but trains do not always run to Orange. From San Diego, take Amtrak to a station to catch a Metrolink but, it only has a few per day so check their sites, (Minnie Valero wants to go so contact her or wait until the SDWS group plans to go on a field trip.)

And if you have never visited the Irvine Museum of Art right near to the John Wayne Airport, then you have not seen plein air work at it’s best. Admission is free there also, and parking is validated. Having worked in museums, my philosophy is, when museums are free, a purchase in the bookstore is a must to help keep museums going!