I went to the members preview show of 'Wyeth, Mystery and Magic' at the Philadelphia Museum of Art yesterday. Andy's work has been an influence on me since I can remember. My grandmother had a book of his paintings that I used to look at when I was a small child (I have that book now) I remember distinctly thinking that That was how I wanted to paint. While most of my work is different, some of my paintings are very obviously Wyeth-esque ( to me anyway ). On my website is a painting called 'Three Steps' that shows this pretty clearly I think, 'Clams Two' also has a strong Wyeth feel. I've always been drawn to hard edge realism imbued with that sense of sadness that Wyeth portrays..also Hopper, Homer and Eakins come immediatly to mind.
...God what a show yesterday ..over one hundred paintings and drawings..I think we were there for almost 4 hours. I had a chance to meet and speak to Andy's grandaughter Victoria, who was on hand to answer questions. She was taking our inqueries back to her grandfather that night as he wanted to know what people were asking. Andrew is 89 this year and still painting...just amazing!! A wonderful day I just had to share. I'm thinking of going to see the show again before it's over..it was simply impossible to absorb that much work in a single afternoon.
Here's a link to some Wyeth pictures http://images.google.com/images?q=wyeth&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images
So exciting to read your experience in that art show. Amazing is to hear that he is still painting!!! I dont know his work, but nice to hear how artists influence others, either dead, alive, far, near, online, real world and etc....
ReplyDeleteEnjoy reading your blog. :)
Thankyou Rose. I'm still really new at this blog thing and it's nice to know I have an audience.
ReplyDeleteI've been influenced by so many artist's. In my earlier years of painting I would see a style I liked and then try to paint that way. Andrew Wyeth from when I was a kid, In Highschool I experimented with all different styles-- abstract art, cubism, pointellism, alot of VanGogh looking stuff...you name it!! Later influences that 'stuck ' would be Georgia Okeefe and David Hockney's work from the seventies. More recently I'd say Wayne Thiebaud has held my facination....just look at my junkfood paintings! Nowadays I just paint what I want and hope that I'm developing my own "style".
If you want to see any of those artist's paintings just enter the name into 'Google Images' and you'll get pages of thier work!
..chuck