Opening day at the Seattle Art Museum of their exhibit "Andrew Wyeth: Remembrance." I was there with friends, Celeste Bergin and Carolyn Rondthaler. Seven paintings. Each one stunning. Mostly Helga but one of Betsy sleeping in a field with her hat covering her face and their dog nearby. Another of a building and a winter tree, reflections in a cold pond.
The Seattle Times has a review of the exhibit here.
No photography allowed in the museum, but I sat on a bench and watched people looking at the paintings. Some would hover near the descriptive label and spend a lot of time reading about the art and hardly any time looking at the art. Some just walked through the exhibit in a daze, not looking or reading, but watching their partner.
But others got as close to the painting as possible (without setting off alarms or bringing guards to warn and point). How did Wyeth do it? How did he make the hair look real and slightly dirty? How did he paint the smooth skin, the shapely muscle beneath and the sturdy bone all at once?
Beautiful. Light filled. Subtle. Lonely. Quiet.
I will think more about Andrew Wyeth and his work. I am so glad I went to Seattle see these seven paintings with my own eyes. It was water to my artist soul.
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