“One’s art goes as far and as deep as one’s love goes.”
Andrew Wyeth
One of my favorite artists is Andrew Wyeth, and his quote above speaks to the depths of my soul! I love drinking in his paintings and sharing my thoughts about them with you.
Andrew Wyeth (July 12, 1917 – January 16, 2009) of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, also spent time at his summer home in Cushing, Maine. His realistic paintings elicit emotion and magnetically draw you into each scene. I appreciate his simplicity and his portrayal of the life around him and of nature. I want to be one of the people in his painting above, dancing around the maypole with the others, laughing and breathing in the crisp, cold air. This painting makes me smile BIG. It speaks of childhood wonder, of freedom, of crisp air, of lightness of heart and of passion for life.
In the painting below, do you feel like you’re about to go over the edge? I feel like a child who made a paper boat and I’m in the fragile boat going over the edge. I can hear the water flowing and smell the wet moss on the rocks.
Probably Wyeth’s most famous oil painting is “Christina’s World,” which depicts his neighbor, Christina Olson, sprawled on a dry field facing her house in the distance, currently resides in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Christina Olsen had an illness which kept her from walking, yet still she explored and spent a great deal of time outside on the property around her home. The Olson farm in Cushing, Maine kept his attention for nearly 30 years along with his other neighbors Anna and Karl Kuerner of Chadds Ford.
Still preserved, the Olsen home has been renovated to match its appearance in Christina’s World and is part of the Farnsworth Art Museum, which is open to the public. The Kuerners’ farm is also available to tour through the Brandywine River Museum, as is the N.C. Wyeth home and studio.
Wyeth was one of five children, the youngest. His father was N.C. Wyeth, a famous illustrator. Like his dad, Andrew read and appreciated the poetry of Robert Frost and Henry David Thoreau and was intrigued by the relationship of art to poetry and nature. In October 1945, a horrible tragedy occurred concerning his father and his three-year-old nephew, Newell Convers Wyeth II. The nephew was riding with his dad and his dad’s car happened to stall on a railroad track near their home as a train was coming, killing them instantly. Wyeth’s art, after this tragedy, was characterized by a very subdued color palette, charged with emotional realism. His artwork often brings us on an emotional journey and seems to engage us with a piece of his heart.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this master study. Stop by Coffee and Canvas to learn more about our engaging paintings and fun opportunities for ages 7 thru adult to learn, to grow, and to just HAVE FUN!
Laura
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