Exhibit Wall Mural Photography

The past three days have been hot in Northern California...you don't expect to feel 100+ degree heat in Napa Valley but it happens. The past three days have also been the days that I had slated in to do all the vineyard and crush pad wall mural photography. The good news is that the high pressure system (no, the heat is not due to 'global warming') sitting over Northern California kept the conditions very consistent. Lot's of clear blue skies and dry heat everyday. The bad news is that there were lot's of clear blue skies everyday... Why, because as a landscape photographer there is nothing I want to see more than clouds. Not heavy overcast gray rainy skies, but the beautiful summer cloud types that add so much interest to a plain old clear blue sky. That said, I'm happy with the photography taken the past few days.... the blue skies will look nice on the exhibit walls, but even a few clouds would have added more depth and some extra interest to the walls.

The photograph above is an unfinished composite of three images taken from the crush pad at Monticello Vineyards. This image will be the rear wall of the exhibit space. It will be 10 feet x 45 feet in size. The truck is another original piece of Napa Valley culture.... It's been transporting grapes, barrels and winery equipment for thirty years.

Thomas Jefferson's Point of View

As you enter "The Culture of Wine" exhibit you will quickly find yourself in two rooms that are a tribute and informational representation of Thomas Jefferson's dining room and wine cellar at Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. Here you will see the replica dining room fireplace and other Jefferson replica artifacts. In his wine cellar recreation you will see how Jefferson stored his valued wines and how the bottles were loaded into his famous dumbwaiter that would carry them to the fireplace upstairs in his dining room.

The photo shown here was taken during the construction of a corner niche that will hold Jefferson's bust in his dining room area. As you can see the construction is not complete at this point. Once finished, the bust will sit on a hardwood riser lighted from above, overseeing the room.

Shipping The 'Bucher' Grape Press

The main event of the second shipment to Texas was loading the big 'Bucher' bladder press at Monticello winery. This press was one of the first two presses to operate at Monticello Vineyards in Napa Valley. I am thrilled to have it now as a focal point of the exhibit's crush pad area. This press is about 6.5 feet tall by 6.5 feet wide by 13 feet long. It has pressed more tons of grapes than I can begin to estimate. It was operational at Monticello from 1982 until 2005.

The photos show the press being loaded onto a special truck for shipment to San Jose, California where it will be loaded into the trailer that will take it to Texas. Once in Texas I will begin cleaning it and prepping it for painting. I want to restore it as close as possible to it's original colors and markings.

Finally Found the Perfect Tractor

In George Taber's excellent book 'Judgement of Paris' there is a photograph of Warren Winarski, founder of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars on a Ford tractor working in a vineyard. I decided early on that I wanted a Ford tractor for the exhibit. I looked everywhere...in California, in Texas....on tractor club websites. Nothing like I was looking for seemed to be available. I was really starting to worry that I might have to opt for something else. That wouldn't be so bad...but I wanted a Ford, circa 1968 - 1976.

Then one day....I was driving from Houston to The George Bush Library in College Station and as I was coming into Navasota I passed a corner lot that had a beautiful Ford tractor sitting near the barbed wire fence with a 'for sale' sign on it. I turned around went back and wrote down the telephone number on the sign. It ended up being about a week later before I could make contact with the owner and work out a price....but now I had my tractor, a 1969 Ford 2000....perfect for the exhibit.

Shown in the photo is George Bush Library - facility manager Robert Spacek as we unloaded it at my College Station storage area.