In our 2013 articles about Wyeth, we posted a color shot of his studio. This black and white image gives a different impression. By Paul Goldfinger © Click image to enlarge
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
Last September we reported on our visit to the Andrew Wyeth studio in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. If you are interested in art but missed those reports, here are the Blogfinger links.
As a photographer, I always pay attention to painters because they create their own worlds while photographers capture what the lens sees. However, there are gray zones, because with digital photography and even with film–darkroom photography, the artist has an opportunity to manipulate the world that he sees.
There are various “schools” of photography that have come and gone over the years since the invention of the camera and light sensitive media. One of those insisted on stark realism without any manipulation. That was true during the golden age of photojournalism where a newspaper photographer could not stage an image or do more to it other than some minor darkroom effects, such as adjusting contrast, which would make the picture clearer.
But later, photojournalism merged into fine art photography. With attention being paid to the “fine art” image, skies were often challenging. Some photographers sought landscapes where the sky was dramatic with clouds, color and shading. If not, they did not like a plain sky, so they could “burn” the sky in the darkroom to at least give it some “color” in a black and white print. Or they could use yellow filters on the camera to darken the sky and bring out clouds.
With digital photography you can achieve all sorts of effects in the sky. Bob Bowné’s imaginative images seen regularly on Blogfinger illustrate how special digital effects can be used in modern photography.
Which brings me to Wyeth’s dry brush on paper painting called “The Mill” from 1959. (below). If you look at the sky, you see no details and no clouds. He does give it a little color. Wyeth could have made the sky look any way, but he chose this.
So this painting has given me permission as a photographer to be satisfied with a landscape that has no detail in the sky. It’s just as well, because if all your photos have dramatic skies, then it can get boring, like sunsets. And in the case of this painting, Wyeth’s choice was absolutely the best one.
The Mill by Andrew Wyeth. (From a reproduction by the Brandywine River Museum)
Here is one of my photographs that illustrates the point:
Washington, DC. Undated. By Paul Goldfinger ©
K.D. LANG
Reblogged this on Blogfinger and commented:
Maybe you missed this post from last May. I like to talk about photography ——-Paul
Hello, found this blog through a google ping. Andrew Wyeth never painted from photographs.
Thanks Frank. Wyeth painted mostly the places where he lived in Maine and Pennsylvania. He knew those locations intimately all his life. He could easily hike on his property and his neighbors’, set up his easel and paint. His biographical data says that he relied on a lot of pencil sketches.
This is from an article about Wyeth: “In 1958, Andrew and Betsy Wyeth purchased and restored “The Mill,” a group of 18th-century buildings that appeared often in his work, including Night Sleeper,1979 (Private collection). Brinton’s Mill was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971″
Of course you are correct about the use of photographs by painters, perhaps to sometimes replace sketches. Wyeth was a great movie buff, and there were souvenirs in his studio from some of his Hollywood friends. He also had slide shows of family events using black and white photos,and he had photographs hanging on the wall of his studio,which you can see in my photo of his studio, so he may very well have used photos in his work
A main reason for bald/blank skys is that early photo processes and films were orthochromatic. Meaning not very sensitive to colour blue. Thus skys which are blue did not render well. Later on when panchromatic films came into being this problem was solved.as they were receptive to a much wider range of colours.
It might be possible that Andrew Wyeth based his painting on fotos. Many painters did. Not sure if Wyeth did though.