The Antonio Blanco Museum - Bali

Breakfast time!

When Allan and I decided to visit Bali for our honeymoon, one of the first places I wanted to see was the Antonio Blanco Museum.  Not that we know that much about art but, for some reason, this museum struck a chord with me.  Here was a man that loved Bali so much that he left the Philippines to pursue a career in art, travelled the world before settling on Ubud, Bali.  In fact, the King of Ubud gave him a plot of land to set up his studio and home.  The same plot of land is actually the museum currently AND where his son and family still live.  His son is also a painter and also uses the same studio that his father, Antonio, created his masterpieces.  Talk about special genes, hey?

Crossing the bridge to the Blanco Museum

The amazing gate

The walk up to the museum was incredible.  The driveway is immaculate and the gate is massive, impressively etched with cursive writing.  After walking up the drive, you enter a small room to pay your entrance fee, are handed a map of the grounds and you're on your way to discover a different world, it seems.  The large steps leading up to the museum area are old but the buildings surrounding the stairwell are so well kept you wouldn't know they're 50 years old.  After arriving at the museum area, you're met with parrots, cockatoos and lovebirds in every color.  The grounds the birds live on are beautiful and they aren't even restricted to cages!!!  The birds all have their own trees to perch on and are given free range to fly around the treetops.  The Blanco family still lives on the grounds, so certain areas were blocked off but that didn't stop us from peeking in the windows and visiting the family temple.  After the ground walk was done, we entered the museum.

Stumbling on the open grounds and the birds

The immaculate grounds

The museum entrance

We weren't allowed to take any pictures in the museum but the inside of the building was so rich that I wish I could.  There were spiral staircases on every side of the building and each wall was painted a different color.  (The turquoise wall was, of course, my favorite.)  I should mention that Antonio Blanco was a very flamboyant man and known for being fascinated with the female form.  The majority of all his paintings were of naked women and he actually created the frame of the picture for each painting.  In fact, the frames became as well known as his paintings.  Allan and I were awestruck by all the paintings.  Each one seemed to have a life of their own.

I can't wait to visit it again next year.  Seriously, I've never enjoyed a museum more than this one.

My new ring!

After the museum, Allan surprised me by buying a gorgeous silver garnet ring.  I have yet to take it off.  I'm a very lucky girl....