Becky's photoblog

After leaving the hotel, we crossed Massachusetts – from East Boston to Williamstown (the furthest north-west corner of MA) – and arrived with enough time to begin our honeymoon with a brief visit one of our favorite museums: The Clark Art Institute.

While the galleries are closed for renovations, they’ve installed several pieces from the collection in a salon-like exhibit, where paintings were deliberately thrown together with paintings from very different times and places. One of the things I love about the Clark is the examples of images of women in their collection – instead of royal portraits, or portraits of women with their children, the paintings in their collection show women who have thoughts and skills (this maybe isn’t the best selection of my favorites, but you get the idea).

Please click here for my photoblog entries for our visit to the Clark Art Institute in

• May 2008 and 
• April 2009

Wandering around my favorite area of Boston, doing a little Christmas shopping 🙂
Boston Public Library (left) and Old South Church (middle)

The steeple of Old South Church lining up nicely with the Hancock Tower

Corner of Mass Ave and Comm Ave

Gorgeous little shop on Newbury Street with fabulous tin clocks

I’m so excited about the new exhibit at the MFA! So excited that I showed up a day early … 

Today was a personal day and after a full day of errands, I had about an hour to run over to the MFA and check out the new exhibit. I guess I got my dates mixed up

But at least I was able to peak through the glass 🙂 I had a moment all to myself viewing the exhibit from a nearly empty corridor. There’s definitely something creepy and beautiful about seeing ancient works of art perfectly lit for viewing with no one looking

I couldn’t see the Aphrodite exhibit but I could visit the rest of the museum. This is probably my favorite room in the new American Wing. It’s curated to mimic the Paris Salon. Nothing beats the combination of white marble, red walls and gold frames.

Apologies for the picture quality … this was taken with my camera a few weeks ago

mmm Chihuly

I was taking a handful of shots of the Gardner Museum’s new building, but I got distracted by the gorgeous fall foliage. How fabulous is that color?

Looking at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum across Evans Way Park

The new greenhouse (slanted glass on the left), the new entrance and lobby (green panels in the middle), and the new special exhibition gallery (the cube on the right). The new building will also contain a new performance hall, gift shop, cafe, classrooms, offices and a lounge for me and my fellow volunteers 🙂


From Palace Road, you can see the new cafe, and the patio for outdoor dining. Beyond the patio, you can see the glass tunnel that connects the new building to the historic palace. Above the new cafe is the new performance hall. 

This is the view from the 5th floor of the Simmons School of Management looking towards Boston Latin (on the left) and Back Bay (on the right). I took this shot just before the lecture by one of the Gardner architects on the design, materials and techniques in the Gardner’s new building. I’m so excited about the new building – just a few more weeks until I get to see the inside 🙂

This is an oil painting of my dear friend Melissa’s grandparents, Edward and Mildred Lyman. She commissioned this painting in early 2011 to be given as a birthday gift to her mother (Edward and Millie’s daughter) in October 2011. This painting was incredibly challenging, moving, and rewarding for me, and Melissa’s mother said simply “it’s the best gift ever!”

This painting is based on a black and white photograph taken in 1949 at Seton Hall University’s Military Ball in front of the trophy case. This beautiful bright-eyed couple married in 1951 they had three children, six grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren in their 60 years of marriage. They both passed away this year, within a year of each other, and I was asked to preserve this precious moment at the beginning of their life together.

I was so nervous that I might not be up to the task of capturing this moment, but then I thought about how nervous Edward might have been when he brought such a gorgeous date to the ball, and my own fears melted away with a smile. I spent the last several months looking deep into the eyes of this confident young couple, wondering what they might have been thinking at the age of 20, dressed up in their finest, at the very beginning of the relationship. This might have been the first time they ever posed for a photo together, and I wonder if they had any idea that they would stand side-by-side for the next 60 years.

They got married about a year after this photo was taken, and I’m getting married next year. Working on this project in the year before my own wedding filled my head with notions of the past and future. Thoughts about Edward and Millie’s life together mixed in my mind with my own wishes for my future with Brian, and the hours passed as I painted. Brian’s opinion about my paintings have become invaluable to my process and Brian and I spent quite a bit of time staring at Edward and Millie together: a strange confrontation of two couples across 60 years.

Melissa asked me to paint this portrait of her grandparents after the death of her grandfather, and by the time I was able to start the project, Melissa’s grandmother had passed away as well. It broke my heart to watch Melissa, my roommate of five years, cope with the illness and death of both beloved grandparents. It was incredibly challenging to accurately capture their bright smiles and the light in their eyes while knowing how their lives came to an end.

I’m humbled by the role I got to play in memorializing this beautiful couple, and I’m extremely moved by the experience of identifying with these 1949 twenty-year olds. Thanks Melissa for letting me be a part of the story of Edward and Millie.

On our way home from visiting B’s family in Stamford and Fair Haven, we stopped at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford

I would have paid the price of admission a few times over just to see this painting. Orazio Gentileschi’s Judith and Holofernes.

Met up with an old friend for dinner at the Prussia, and wandered around Christian Science Plaza before and after dinner. This is the Mother Church of Christian Science reflected in the pool. I love this area of Boston!

Best way to beat the heat

Best way to catch up with an old friend: take laps around a gorgeous reflecting pool as the sun sets, then head to Newbury St for ice cream. Thanks for a lovely evening, my dear!

I love my new camera. And this church. This is the First Church of Christian Science  (or the Mother Church), with the old church (the tower in front), lining up quite nicely with the new church (the dome and the bigger building in back). I highly recommend checking out the interior of both, and wandering around this Plaza at night. 

See what I mean? This is the Mother Church on the left, the Sheraton  (in red in the background), the Prudential Tower (with the yellow lights at the top) and the 101 Huntington tower 

“The Ceramics Program of the Office for the Arts at Harvard announces its annual Holiday Show and Sale May 14th – 17th at 219 Western Avenue, Allston, MA.” http://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/ceramics/

Every year on Mother’s Day weekend, Harvard’s Ceramics Program hosts a spring sale, and the incredible talented artists put their wares on display. Brian ‘discovered’ this a few years back, and we’ve gone to the show together every few years. I’m re-posting these photos from 2009 in 2014, after visiting the spring sale this morning in it’s new location.

We also went in 2011, and purchased 3 gorgeous pieces for his mom, my mom and my grandmother, and gave them their gifts later that afternoon. HerMy grandparents were in town for a few reasons, so Brian’s parents had come up, and we spent a very memorable afternoon with all of our parents and grandparents celebrating mother’s day, my 30th birthday, and our recent engagement.

Here’s my photos from our visit to the Harvard Ceramics Program spring sale in 2014.

Brian and I took a daytrip up to Maine to see an exhibit on impressionist landscapes, which was wonderful. This is the view into the special exhibition gallery from the 2nd floor.

I love this room – and this brings me back to my very first photoblog post (10/13/07). This is the sculpture gallery at the Portland Museum of Art.

very cool rock sculpture thingy. brian took this shot through a wreath in the window

a few rooms in the PMA, looking towards a portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner’s nephew

After we had our fill at the museum, we headed in search of a good meal, and found exactly that at this place – i think it was called Bull Feeney’s. This shot doesn’t do it justice, but the light coming through these huge windows was really amazing. For the record, the authentic Maine seafood chowder and parmesan crusted haddock sandwich with citrus aioli sauce was also really amazing

gratuitous silverware still-life

Long Wharf

This is Brian with a licorice pipe after we stopped at an amazing candy store in Kittery on the way to Portland.

This doesn’t do it justice but the sunset as we drove back was the bluest blue, the orange-est orange and every color in between.

Gwen and I visited Harvard’s Fogg Museum, which will close very soon for 5 years of renovation – it’s one of my favorite museums in the world (and that’s saying a lot, if I may), and even tho parts of the collection will still be on view for the next 5 years, I will really miss this incredible space.

Brian and I got out of town for the weekend and visited some museums in the Berkshires. We went to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, then the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, then stayed the night at The Porches, then we went to Mass MoCA.

I worked on all six of these paintings today. I feel productive, satisfied, tired and hungry.

fake flowers, at dusk

Too sore to go to work, but not sore enough to keep me from painting all day!

These are other photos that I’ve taken of the Christian Science center complex in the last few years.

Today was bring your whiny kids to the MFA Day. Always worth it though.

On the day after Christmas, I took the train down to NYC to meet Brian and we spent the afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Five years later, we did the same thing

It’s 2014, and I’m going back to the beginning of my first photoblog (at photoblog.com/bdaroff), and recreating my old posts on my own site here at beckydimattia.com/photoblog. This post is from our trip to Ogunquit with my sister, parents and grandparents. My grandparents had a time-share up there, and we drove up to spend the weekend taking in the gorgeous New England colors.

Looking back on this weekend 7 years ago, I still remember this vividly. Brian and I had started dating just one week before this, and I remember talking to him on the phone while looking out over Perkins Cove. A dear friend had also lost her father just a week before this, and I remember debating with my parents whether I should fly to San Francisco for the memorial (I did).

I also remember taking a long slow walk along the Marginal Way, and how my dad, sister and grandmother shook their heads and walked on ahead of us while my mom, grandfather and I stopped every three seconds to take pictures. It was well worth it – one of my photos below has been hanging in my office for many years, reminding me of the gorgeous Maine coast and a great day with my family.

We’re all museum lovers, and we visited two museums that weekend – the Ogunquit Museum of American Art (not that memorable for me, except the gorgeous grounds), and the Portland Museum of Art, which I loved. I especially love the room with all of the marble sculptures and tons of light pouring in from huge windows. A year or so later, Brian and I revisited the Portland Museum of Art together.