"Sizing Up"

 

 

12 x 12"

oil on panel

When I first saw Jamie Wyeth's life-size Portrait of Pig years ago, it was love at first sight.  From that moment, I wanted to paint a pig.  And one day, I will.

I'll start by saying I worship Jamie Wyeth.  And Andrew Wyeth, his father.  And N. C. Wyeth, his grandfather.  Three generations of artistic brilliance.  Matter of fact, the exhibit "Three Generations" is where I first saw this masterpiece.

Jamie grew up on a farm in both Chadd's Ford, Pennsylvania and the Wyeth summer home in Maine. At a 2011 exhibit titled "Farm Work" that included over 70 paintings by Jamie Wyeth, he was asked what inspired him to paint so many scenes of the subject, he said "Had I been born in New York City, I'm sure I would have been painting subways or something, but it's just that this what I was raised around and what was familiar to me."

As for the story behind Portrait of Pig,  Jamie said it was on a neighboring farm where he frequently painted, where the pig had the run of the place.  "The farmer asked me to help him with something, and after an hour I walked back to where I was painting.  And there was a snorting, and her whole snout was covered with cerulean blue and cadmium orange."  She had eaten and swallowed 17 tubes of paint.  "I thought it's curtains for you because oil paint is highly toxic".  The next few days she seemed fine but all around the farm there were rainbow-colored droppings and the farmer kept saying "What's wrong with my hog?".  Jamie couldn't bring himself to tell him what happened.  

Jamie soon learned the farmer was going to send the pig to the butcher and said "Oh no. I've got to take her."  He paid for the pig, brought her to his farm where she lived to a ripe old age.

My painting will be included in the upcoming group show Looking Forward, *opening July 2nd at Robert Lange Studios.

Please click here for a larger view and purchase/contact information.

 

* Robert Lange Studios will welcome walk-ins during normal hours on Friday, July 2nd and Saturday, July 3rd.  Opening night for artists' shows will resume in the fall.

"Spooked"

 

 

6 x 8"

oil on panel

sold

When October comes around, I always think of the Wyeth family - as in N. C., his son Andrew and his son Jamie.  The enthusiasm for pumpkins and Halloween started with N. C., with costumes and Jack-O'Lanterns playing a large part of the celebrations.  All three of the artists painted many versions of pumpkins placed around the home, in vines, lit at night and then there's Pumpkinhead, painted by Jamie Wyeth, a self-portrait done in 1972.

The best way to explain how this painting came to be is by Jamie himself:

“I had been elected to the National Academy of Design in New York, and one of the requirements was that you give a portrait, a self-portrait of yourself. Well, I didn’t want to do myself in a self-portrait, but I love pumpkins. It’s the sinisterness, the Halloween I’ve always loved. It’s a little bit edgy. So I did it and of course they were furious and rejected it.”

 

Imagine Jamie Wyeth's submission to a panel of stuffy art professors.  That's funny in and of itself.  It speaks to him messaging the art world's long standing rejection of the Wyeths being 'real artists' and more illustrators and saying 'take that'.  

 

Pumpkinhead has been and always will be one of my very favorite paintings by the great Jamie Wyeth.