When we received word several months ago that the Taft Museum of Art’s exhibition lineup would include From Winslow Homer to Edward Hopper: American Watercolor Masterpieces from the Brooklyn Museum (which we featured in our February issue: "Where It's At"), we knew we would be taking a field trip. We did so on Wednesday, and I can think of no better way to recharge our editorial batteries for the remainder of the week.

The recently opened exhibition features 70 stellar watercolors from the Brooklyn Museum’s collection, chronicling the rise of the medium in America and shifts in technique over the years. The Brooklyn Museum was the first American art museum to start collecting watercolors, so it only makes sense that all of the greats are included, and several works from some—Eakins, Sargent, Hassam, Prendergast, Marin, Marsh (and, naturally, Homer and Hopper). Going through the exhibition, you're able to see these artists progressively finding and tuning their creative voices.

Personal highlights: The first piece that caught my attention as I turned the corner and walked into the second gallery was none other than Sargent's breathtaking In a Levantine Port, which bears a striking resemblance to his White Boats (that ran in our December issue's "Studio Staples" column). In the section on Modernism, I overheard a woman behind me say to her female friend who was pushing her wheelchair over to Prendergast’s Sunday on the Beach: “That’s a Prendergast, I just know it!” How refreshing to see firsthand a public thirst for water(color). Thanks to the Taft—and Brooklyn Museum—for quenching ours.