Farnsworth Art Museum
Rockland, ME
207-596-6457
http://www.farnsworthmuseum.org
The Maine Influence: Selected
Works by N. C. Wyeth / The Maine Influence: Selected Works by James Wyeth
Two related exhibitions
on view in the Wyeth Center, "The Maine Influence: Selected Works by
N. C. Wyeth" and "The Maine Influence: Selected Works by James
Wyeth" explore the work and life of N. C. Wyeth and James Wyeth and
the different ways living and working in Maine affected both. Maine was
and continues to be a creative stimulus to these two artists, but often
for very different reasons.
Landscape painting, for Newell Convers Wyeth, was a means
to explore many different modern theories and techniques free from the pressures
of illustration work. Every summer, beginning in 1920, 
N. C. Wyeth and his family would vacation in Port
Clyde, Maine. Here he experimented with new bright exciting colors and imagery
and scale bordering on fantasy. He was free to take time to explore his
ideas fully, often taking months, not weeks, to complete a painting, and
occasionally painting several different versions of the same scene in different
sizes or media. "Portrait of a Young Artist," an image of his
son Andrew painting on the Maine coast, and "Bright and Fair,"
the Wyeths' summer home in Port Clyde, will be two of the works on view
in this show. (left: N. C. Wyeth, Bright and Fair-Eight Bells,
1936, oil on canvas, Museum purchase)
Not merely a summer retreat for James Wyeth, Maine's wildness
and isolation have drawn him here year-round. In his youth he painted in
watercolor in and around Cushing and his work is heavily influenced by that
of his father, Andrew. Two works in the show from this period are "Red
Life Preserver" from 1960 and "The Capstan" from 1963. He
struck out on his own in his late teens and 
bought a house on Monhegan Island. Here he fell in
love with island life and although he now owns his own island, he continues
to paint the landscape and people of Monhegan. The Monhegan works in this
show span over 30 years, from "Bronze Age" of 1966 to "Fog"
completed in 2000. In the early 1990s, James purchased Southern Island and
moved into the decommissioned lighthouse on this tiny island off Tenants
Harbor. The lighthouse and the local animal life figure prominently in many
of the works from Southern, such as "Iris at Sea, Study #2" from
1994 and "Eat" from 1999. (left: James Wyeth, Iris at
Sea, Study #2, 1994, combined medium on toned board, Bequest of Mrs.
Elizabeth B. Noyce)
"The Maine Influence: Selected Works by N. C. Wyeth"
opens to the public on January 14, 2001 and runs through May 6, 2001. "The
Maine Influence: Selected Works by James Wyeth" opens to the public
on January 14, 2001 and runs through May 13, 2001. Both shows will be on
view in the MBNA Center for the Wyeth Family in Maine.
Related articles in this magazine:
Read more about the Farnsworth
Art Museum in Resource Library Magazine
Please click on thumbnail images bordered by a red line
to see enlargements.
For further biographical information on selected artists
cited above please see America's Distinguished
Artists, a national registry of historic artists.
This page was originally published in Resource
Library Magazine. Please see Resource Library's Overview section for
more information. rev. 4/30/11
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Copyright 2011 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights
reserved.
N. C. Wyeth and his family would vacation in Port
Clyde, Maine. Here he experimented with new bright exciting colors and imagery
and scale bordering on fantasy. He was free to take time to explore his
ideas fully, often taking months, not weeks, to complete a painting, and
occasionally painting several different versions of the same scene in different
sizes or media. "Portrait of a Young Artist," an image of his
son Andrew painting on the Maine coast, and "Bright and Fair,"
the Wyeths' summer home in Port Clyde, will be two of the works on view
in this show. (left: N. C. Wyeth, Bright and Fair-Eight Bells,
1936, oil on canvas, Museum purchase)