Laurel Court at the Cincinnati Art Club

The Cincinnati Art Club put my mixed media painting of Laurel Court on their invitations to the Associate Members' show opening next Friday night; yay!

The Club is located at the base of Mt. Adams near downtown Cincinnati on 1021 Parkside Place. There will be a nice party there Friday March 12 and I will be there personally from 6-7 pm. Please stop by and say hello if you can!

If you've never been to Laurel Court, on the West side at 5780 Belmont Avenue (next to McAuley high school), it's well worth a visit. My friends and I toured the home and gardens last spring; they are available to rent for events like parties and wedding receptions.

This house rests on the highest point in Hamilton County. It was built 100 years ago by Peter Thomson, the founder of Champion Paper and is now owned and operated by the Moyer family, who can be reached at info@laurelcourt.com, (513) 542-2000, or http://www.laurelcourt.com/.

Resembling the Petit Trianon, Marie Antoinette's home in France, the Beaux-arts designed home has 36 rooms and nearly 20,000 square feet. The grounds include a formal French garden with marble statuary and carved stone balustrades, a Japanese garden with Koi ponds, and a pool near a wisteria-covered pergola.

Cincinnatians may remember this house as a former LaRosa's corporate headquarters or Archdiocese residence.

The Cincinnati Art Club is also more than a hundred years old and famous artists such as Frank Duveneck, Henry Farny and Joseph Henry Sharp were members.