Summer afternoons in Florida are a nice time to visit museums, tour a garden, swim in the pool or the Gulf, have a leisurely lunch and take a few photos along the way. The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg and the Ringling Museum in Sarasota both make fun day trips.
The Salvador Dali museum in St. Petersburg breaks out of the box with both glass and rock.
The Dali Museum glass wall/ceiling brings light into the core of the museum. The painting galleries surround the core with walls separating the strong natural light from the controlled gallery lighting.
The architecture of the Vinoy Hotel hearkens back to a more decorative style.
Gordon Huether is a sculptor and painter with a studio and gallery in Napa, California which I visited last summer. The hot colors of the glass inside the cool metal express the tropical heat with a sense of contemporary sophistication of a city that welcomes new art forms.
This beautiful rose, blooming in the July heat, is part of Mabel Ringling’s rose garden.
This maiden has stood so long in Mabel Ringling’s rose garden that she has begun to grow lichens on her fair complexion.
In the center of Mabel Ringling’s rose garden stands a wrought-iron gazebo. Looking straight up to the clear blue sky reveals its pattern, which echoes the structure of the garden itself.