Inspiration: Andrew Wyeth

I visited the Flint Institute of Arts last week to check out the Andrew Wyeth show running through August 7^th. The quality of his work really stops me in my tracks. I enjoy his color palette, the realistic yet sometimes grainy texture to his paintings, his technique with drybrush, and am glad to see that he doesn’t seem to paint right out of the tube too much (one of my biggest pet peeves). His paintings evoke a sense of calm country to me – very soothing and environmental. 

I was familiar with his painting Braids, and most of the other works in his Helga series, but was so wonderfully surprised to see his landscapes and a lot of letters written to friends on display. Here are a couple of the highlights for me:

Here are a few more works by Wyeth that I really enjoy:

To be honest, there aren’t many artists that I truly enjoy in the full scope of their work. It helps to know something personal about the artist that I identify with. Andrew Wyeth’s connection to the lands he loved and being one of five children, gives me a greater feeling of connection to his work. That’s how I am with artists, wanting to get a sense of knowing how they were feeling, some way to identify.

Also featured at the exhibition are works by Edmund Lewandowski, which I was lukewarm about but ended up really enjoying, especially the mosaic housed permanently at the FIA, The Industrialization of Flint.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised and had a fabulous time. A lot of the time anymore, I get easily bored in museums and galleries. It’s not that I don’t understand craftsmanship and the kind of skill and dedication it takes to make works of art, not to mention to historical importance of different movements, I just don’t often find myself too curious about works that don’t hold my interest off the get go. I find that people can get really snobby about art too, and I dislike the whole elitism that is often associated with the arts.

I’m glad I had the opportunity to see this show and would love to see more of Wyeth’s works at some of the museums in New England.