Tag: Wyeth Family art

Maine Moments: Wyeth Family Art

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FARNSWORTH ART MUSEUM: PART 2

Three Generations of Wyeths

The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland is a center, along with the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pa., for the artwork of three generations of Wyeths.  A former church building houses almost exclusively Wyeth paintings and sculptures, while the contemporary building has a variety of different exhibits, often one highlighting one Wyeth or another.   

The featured exhibit this year is Jamie Wyeth Unsettled.  It’s a collection of his eerie, sometimes spooky, and outright ghoulish paintings from several decades.  I didn’t love this exhibit. Some images I found too graphic and very disturbing, but I’m including a few works I did appreciate.  

There’s also a small exhibit of abstract watercolors by Andrew Wyeth, father of Jamie and probably the most famous of the Wyeth threesome.

N. C. WYETH

In a separate exhibit of works associated with Maine, I was struck by an action-filled painting by the first Wyeth, Newell Convers, known as N. C.  He lived from 1882-1945 and was both a painter and an illustrator.  He illustrated a series of Scribner’s classics, and he is likely best known for that work.  Born, raised, and educated in art in Massachusetts, Wyeth then moved to Chadds Ford where he made his lifelong home.  

Cleaning Fish, N. C. Wyeth, 1933

There is so much suggested motion in this Port Clyde painting with the flock of birds surrounding the fisherman while he calmly guts the fish. I also like the soft light and the almost pastel colors.

JAMIE WYETH: HAUNTED, SUPERNATURAL, STRANGE

Julia on the Swing, J. Wyeth, 1999

Jamie Wyeth Unsettled is a large exhibit divided into three sections.  They are “Strangers and Specters,” “Haunted Places and Disturbing Spaces,” and “The Natural and Supernatural Worlds.”  Paintings of indoor places and outdoor spaces are sometimes eerie or suggest imprisonment. In others, Wyeth uses bones to depict grotesque scenes, and in still another, an uprooted tree appears distorted into something threatening, possibly evil.  It’s a strange collection overall.

Gull and Windsor, J. Wyeth 1993
Farm Talk, J. Wyeth, 2016
Lightning Struck, J. Wyeth 1975

ANDREW WYETH:  WATERCOLOR STUDIES

Unseen Andrew Wyeth is a small selection of abstract watercolors, a stark contrast to the Jamie Wyeth exhibit.  These have never been displayed before and show Wyeth working with shapes and moods in blacks and browns primarily.  Some of these pieces were studies for later paintings, but not all of them.  For such a representational painter as Andrew Wyeth was, these works show a different side of his aesthetic.  Here are two of them I found striking.

Fog & White Dory Study, A. Wyeth 1941
Untitled, A. Wyeth

SUSTENANCE: MIDCOAST DINING IN ROCKLAND

WATERWORKS RESTAURANT

After an intense morning of art, where does one eat lunch?  We used to have a favorite corner grill that produced a good lobster roll, but it closed and became a cannabis shop.  Other places we’d tried after that were just ordinary.  This time I did some research and discovered WaterWorks on a side street not far from the Farnsworth.

Casual and attractive with lots of tables and a bar, WaterWorks delivered an excellent cup of clam chowder (one of the best we’ve had!) followed by tasty, not greasy, cheese and chicken quesadillas.  It was a delicious lunch and just what we needed.  Recommended!

Note: Header photo is of the painting, Boothbay Harbor by Edward Redfield, 1937. All photos taken by JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Maine Days: Wyeths & Lawyers

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FOR WYETH LOVERS

Farnsworth Art Museum

Along with the the Brandywine River Museum outside Philadelphia, the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland has one of the largest collection of works by the Wyeth family.  Here are works by Andrew Wyeth of Cristina’s World fame, by his son Jamie Wyeth, by Andrew’s father, N. C. Wyeth, and some by other Wyeth relatives.  This year’s featured exhibit is works from Betsy Wyeth’s estate, a gift to the museum.  Betsy, wife of Andrew, died in 2020 at the age of 98.

Islander by Jamie Wyeth
Fisherman’s Family by N. C. Wyeth
Wicker by Jamie Wyeth

I was also struck by a couple of works in their permanent Maine collection, a striking woman in white and a still life of intense golden flowers.

Kym in White by Alex Katz
Orange Prince by Beverly Hallam

Another highlight for me this year was the Women of Vision exhibit.  It focuses on thirteen women who are either artists or patrons of the art whose work and/or philanthropy has ties to Maine.  Some are historical figures like Edna St. Vincent Millay, one was a Passamaquoddy basket weaver, while others like photographer and gardener Cig Harvey are actively working.  I was particularly struck by a charming strawberry basket.

By Molly Neptune Parker

PERFECT FOR AN AIRPLANE FLIGHT

A Good Mother by Lara Bazelon

Author Bazelon is a law professor who also spent seven years as a federal public defender in Los Angeles.  She knows how the federal court system works and has penned a fascinating and gripping courtroom drama set in LA.  This is her first novel.

Lead defense lawyer Abby Rosenberg is a bit of a hot shot who utilizes bold and sometimes questionable techniques to win her cases.  She is also a new mother still on maternity leave.  Her client, Luz Rivera Hollis, is a nineteen-year-old accused of murdering her soldier husband at an army base in Germany.  She too is a new mother to infant Cristina.  Abby’s co-counsel, Will Ellet, is young, ambitious, and unsettled in his marriage.  You may wonder about the ethics and behaviors of these lawyers, but their actions make for a good story!  What exactly constitutes being a good mother?

Note: Photos by JWFarrington (some rights reserved). Header photo is cone flowers at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.