The Mill (detail) 1959. By Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) Drybrush on paper. From a Brandywine River Museum Publication. Chadds Ford, Pa. © Andrew Wyeth. Left click all images
Entrance to Andrew Wyeth’s studio in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Guided tour presented by the Brandywine River Museum. September 2013. Paul Goldfinger photo ©
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net We have a number of posts about this great artist . You can put his name into our search box above.
2013:
There is a sign on Andrew Wyeth’s studio door which says “I am working, so please do not disturb. I do not sign autographs.” He liked his privacy. He planted lots of shrubs and trees around so that the simple white house would not be noticed.
On the way to the studio each morning, Wyeth would stop at Wawa and pick up eggs to make tempera paint.
Andrew Wyeth’s studio by NY Times photographer Jessica Kourkounis * May, 2013. Note the northerly light that artists love.
His grand-daughter Victoria Browning Wyeth happened by while we were assembling outside. She had spent the morning with a BBC crew that was interviewing her and photographing inside. She is a bubbly young woman who was carrying a sketch-like water color that her grandfather made for her. She briefly held it up so that we all could see.
The drawing shows Andrew Wyeth in Maine, sitting on the rocks overlooking the ocean in Cushing, Maine where he spent his summers. He is with his dog and he is sketching. He is wearing a Ralph Lauren jacket which Victoria showed us. He liked to wear that jacket when he painted, and she showed us the paint splatters on the sleeves. Beneath the picture is a personal letter from A.W. to Victoria.
We posted a photograph of Victoria with that painting along with a quote of her grandfather’s letter to her and a closeup of the letter.
However, she e-mailed us today and asked that we remove the image and the text quote on the grounds that they are copyright. She did not tell us that the image was copyright when she showed it to the entire group. Many of us were taking photos of her. However, we have agreed to her request.
* New York Times travel article May,, 2013, is very good: NY Times Wyeth article
AARON COPLAND. London Symphony Orchestra. “Down a Country Lane” (1962). Album: Orchestral Works (1948-1971)
Thank you again for removing the images. I apologize for not being clear about public use of the images. Thanks for your understanding.
Paul – the Island’s name in the letter is Teel Island. AW was a close friend of Henry Teel whose family owned the island for many generations. Several of Wyeth’s great paintings were done on Teel Island.
Ernie: Remember this from Annie Hall by Woody Allen:
Where did he get his eggs before 1964…7-11? Just kidding cousin.
SWEET! What a treasure that painted letter to her is. I also like your comments about adjusted skies. It is the capturing of the moment that I appreciate in order to share it with someone who wasn’t there. I don’t like it as much when it has been adjusted later on.
Photography notes: Painters in the past would use sketches and their memory to guide their hand in the studio. But, since the invention of photography, many use photographs for that purpose.
But the converse is true, at least for me. I like to look at paintings to see how the painter handles light and to observe how the painter composes the scene. Wyeth has been helpful for me. I like to see how he deals with shadows, highlights and composition.
The painter can create fiction regarding light by localized adjustments on canvas. The photographer only gets one exposure per image, and the light falls as it may. However, in the old days, a photographer could go into the darkroom and make localized adjustments, sort of like the painter.
Now, in the digital age, photographers can do much more manipulation than darkroom experts could do, even with the various tricks available in the dark.
But Wyeth is really honest regarding light, and so I try to emulate that by minimizing digital adjustments. In the painting above, notice that Wyeth does nothing to dramatize the sky. I like that simplicity.
Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger