Goodbye Andrew Wyeth

Somewhere amid all the inaugural hullaballoo and Hudson river diving I heard on the news that one of America's greatest painters, Andrew Wyeth died last night. Wyeth is the one on the right in the picture above. He was born, raised, lived, painted and died in Chadd's Ford, Pennsylvania, but spent some years in his summer home in Cushing, Maine. His neighbor in Maine, Chirstina Olson, is the subject of Wyeth's most famous painting: Sara and I saw Chrstina's World while we were at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Strangely enough, they have it displayed in a hallway, we definitely wouldn't have found it if we weren't looking for it. No, I swear on my life, that is not our camara that cast the flash on the painting! Some tourists just don't get it. Anyhow, Christina had polio that rendered her unable to walk, and Wyeth captured what I would consider an exact representation of how things must have looked to her. He has her far away from the farmhouse...how'd she get out there? The field drowns out the entire painting, making Christina's task to get home look absolutely daunting. Wyeth was a representationist...he painted pictures with the intention to perfectly capture the feeling of being in the scene. I think it takes real genius to make a scene look more real on canvas than in real life. Christina's World makes me feel what its like to be unable to walk.

I could go on and on forever about Wyeth, check out some of his other works that I really like. Notice how he paints the scene from the perspective of the common onlooker, as though you are actually there.
Stop! I swear this is a country road in Southeastern Wisconsin. Wyeth used very few colors, I think this adds to the realism.

This here is Helga. She was a neighbor in Pennsylvania. He did 274 paintings of her, all of which were bought by a Japanese dude. I wonder if Helga and Andrew did a bit more than study art together. Hmmm.... Isn't this a beautiful portrait.

Trodden Weed This painting has just about no color in it, but has so much character. Its so cool to see a painting of the ground with some feet, for this is real. This is what we look at as we walk all alone.

The Master Bedroom I like how this painting is transformed by the title. If he had called it Cabin Room the painting would take on an entirely different meaning. The walls, the bedding, the dog and the outside scenery are all the same color. And look at how the light comes in onto the bed. This simple room conveys more comfort than a 5-star hotel, but only to the person who lives there; it makes me think about my own bedroom and how comfortable I am there, especially as the sun peeks in on a clear Saturday morning with the cat all curled up on me.

This one is called the The Turkey Pond but you can't see any turkeys anywhere. I think this guy is heading to the pond with me, his best friend, so we can hang out with the turkeys. We are obviously in a big hurry. I like turkeys.

Wow, this is a super long blog, and I've got so much more to say. I love art!! Hats off to Andrew Wyeth, one of America's greatest painters. If you happen to own one of his works, it just jumped in value like crazy today, congratulations!