Friday, January 16, 2009

Andrew Wyeth






Wyeth - The Sisters


Andrew Wyeth has died.  He has high art critics it is said.  Not me.  I am a great admirer.  For me the pantheon is Ansel Adams, Monet, and Wyeth.  They taught me to see.  

Georges Harbor is  the place where Maine was founded.  Weymouth  landed there in 1605, erected a cross, claimed it for England and named the islands for the King - George.  In 1905 a memorial cross was erected there on the north end of Allen Island by the State of Maine. Thousands gathered for the Tricentennial.   Across the gut between Allen and Benner the Wyeths have a home.  

In these photographs of Georges Harbor and Allen Island Sea Station (a Betsy Wyeth project), a favorite place of mine, I have tried to capture the light that Wyeth celebrated, and for which we love the St.George River, Maple Juice Cove, Cushing where he painted the lives of Alva and Christina Olson.  We have been nearly neighbors 2 weeks a year there.  We will miss him.

Home Run is Andrew and Betsy's.  The dinghy is a Joel White-designed peapod. The lobster boat - Archangel - is the namesake of Weymouth's vessel. 

For the record here is the New York Times obit.  If you don't know the Wyeths'  Maine work the place to learn about it is in Rockland, at The Farnsworth Art Museum and Wyeth Center
 Portrait of Andrew Wyeth by James Graham, collage by The Farnsworth.