Sometimes just slowing down in our fast-paced world can make a considerable difference.  Taking the time to sit down and focus on a single painting in a gallery full of art can help students make considered, thoughtful, and detailed observations. …

Belmont lost a piece of history when Bartlett Tree Company took down one of our old cedar trees. The Eastern Redcedar -Juniperus virginiana, was damaged in the high wind event we had earlier in the month. A large section split off from the trunk render …

The Little Green House A painting entirely new to me by Gari Melchers entitled The Little Green House has surfaced, and is to be sold at auction in Sotheby’s American Art sale scheduled for March 28, 2018. The signed oil on canvas measuring 18 ½ x 15 1 …

For the first time in 1000 years it looks like the famed Bayeux Tapestry will be allowed to travel for exhibition to England, the country whose early history it so evocatively recounts. “In a sensational stroke of cultural diplomacy,” writes the Washin …

Months of planning and work have finally paid off! Since the discovery of the prints in 2015 a lot of work had to be done before we could make our new dinosaur-footprint guide available to our guests. Dr. Weems and other paleontologists found time to m …

Recently when my husband and I were visiting our son we spent a pleasurable afternoon in the Seattle Art Museum. They have a wonderful collection.  In anticipation of my upcoming trip to the Hudson River Valley, I paid particular attention to the pione …

An old ship model now hangs aloft in one corner of Gari Melchers’ studio at Belmont. It is the very same model the painter suspended from the ceiling of his studio in Holland years earlier, as documented by a photograph of his studio interior from arou …

When we made the decision to install two meadows on former pasture land in the year 2000, we were one of the first, if not the first, historic site in Virginia to create native grassland wildlife habitats. You can read more about the many benefits of h …

Reprinted from Sketches, a Newsletter for the Friends of Belmont, Spring/Summer 2005   On December 1, 2004, some staggering news from New York may have had Gari Melchers doing flip-flops in his grave; the staff at Belmont certainly met the report with …

I subscribe to the theory of six points of separation, the idea that each person is connected to anyone else in the world by no more than six other intermediaries, at least where Gari Melchers is concerned.  If I had a dollar for every time someone tol …