He Paints No More.....

This past Friday, 1/16/2009, brought with it the death of my favorite artist of all eras and genres, Andrew Wyeth, at age 91. Although I am in awe of the works of so many great artists through the ages, his always seemed to call to me and bade me to gaze on his work for endless hours in order to absorb as much as my simple understanding of artworks allows. This post is offered in his memory to any who may be interested

"With watercolour, you can pick up the atmosphere, the temperature, the sound of snow shifting through the trees or over the ice of a small pond or against a windowpane. Watercolour perfectly expresses the free side of my nature." - Andrew Wyeth

Andrew Wyeth was born July 12, 1917 in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, the youngest of five children. He was a sickly child so his mother and father pulled him out of school after he contracted whooping cough. His parents home-schooled him in every subject including art.

His father, Newell Convers Wyeth, was a well known illustrator whose art was featured in many magazines, calendars, posters and murals, and he also painted maps for the National Geographic Society

Andrew had a vivid memory and wonderful imagination that led to a great fascination for art. His father recognized an obvious raw talent nurturing and undertook teaching him the basics of traditional academic drawing. Andrew began painting watercolour studies of the rocky coast and the sea at the family summer home in Port Clyde Maine.

He worked primarily in watercolours and egg tempera often using shades of brown and grey. He held his first one-man show of watercolours painted around the family's summer home in 1937. It was a great success that would lead to many more.

He married at twenty-two to a local girl named Betsey James and had two boys, Nicholas who became an art dealer, and James who became the third generation artist in his family. Interestingly, although James' father was the most popular artist in his family history, he was greatly inspired by his grandfather's illustrations.

Andrew was featured on the cover of American Artist as well as many other famous magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post that displayed his painting "The Hunter." His first solo museum exhibition was presented in 1951 at the Farnsworth Art Museum. Since then he has seen many more successes and is considered one of the most "collectible" living artist's of our time.

Wyeth, who focused on the people and landscapes of Pennsylvania's Brandywine Valley and coastal Maine in works such as "Christina's World," died in his sleep at his Philadelphia-area home.

Although some critics deride his art as drab and kitschy, Andrew Wyeth's melancholy paintings were praised by others as profound reflections of 20th Century alienation and existentialism. It was in Maine that Wyeth found the subject for "Christina's World," his best-known painting, and my personal favorite painting of all time. Wyeth's world was as limited in scale, and as rich in associations, as "Christina's World," which shows a disabled woman looking up a grassy rise toward her farm home, her face tantalizingly unseen. It was Betsy who introduced Wyeth to Christina Olson. Wyeth befriended the disabled old woman and her brother, and practically moved in with them for a series of studies of the house, its environs and its occupants. The acme of that series was "Christina's World," painted in 1948. It was Olson's house, but the figure was Betsy Wyeth.

The old Olson home is still there, but the bushes that he omitted in the painting are now huge trees at the spot 'Christina' is sitting. Artists often stop at the Olson place in Cushing, Maine to capture the scenery in their own works. around the area he was known mostly as simply Andy, an open and friendly man. He so loved the area that he requested he be interred at the Olson Family Cemetery by the Olson Farm.

In this 1987 file photo, American artist Andrew Wyeth stands beside one of his paintings of 'mystery model' Helga at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. It was in Pennsylvania that he met Helga Testorf, a neighbor in his native Chadds Ford who became the subject of intimate portraits that brought him millions of dollars and a wave of public attention in 1986. The "Helga" paintings, many of them full-figure nudes, came with a whiff of scandal: Wyeth said he had not even told his wife, Betsy, about the more than 200 paintings and sketches until he had completed them in 1985.

Wyeth had his first professional success outside of Maine at age 20, with an exhibition of Maine landscapes at a gallery in New York. Two years later he met his future wife, Betsy James. Betsy Wyeth was a strong influence on her husband's career, serving as his business agent, keeping the world at bay and guiding his career choices. "Really, I think one's art goes only as far and as deep as your love goes," Wyeth said in a Life magazine interview in 1965.

A few of my other favorites of his. Daydreams Around The CornerMaster's Bedroom

In this Feb. 23, 1964, file photo, artist Andrew Wyeth stands in front of his farm in Chadds Ford, Pa.

A sign dedicated to Andrew Wyeth is seen on Jimmy John's, a restaurant he is said to have frequented in Chadds Ford, Pa I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Wyeth at several events over the the years and, although he didn't know me from any of a multitude of admirers, he had way of making you feel like you'd been friends forever. He'll be greatly missed. Until next time, take care.