What I Didn’t Know about Jamie Wyeth

When I was planning a trip to Maine last summer, half a dozen voices in the Wednesday Studio suggested a visit to the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland. (That’s about how many of my classmates were born there, stay with relatives there, travel through there, go to camp there, or stay there all summer. It’s quite a Maine cabal.)

The museum focuses on Maine artists, and is known for its Wyeths. I was looking forward to seeing more of Andrew Wyeth’s watercolors. I paint only in watercolor, so such works are what I can really appreciate and learn from.

Our little touring band went to the Farnsworth on our first day in Maine, in July, and I was a bit (read very) disappointed that its biggest gallery featured works by Jamie Wyeth, Andrew’s son, who paints mostly in oil. Only a few watercolors by Andrew were on exhibit.

Still, I liked a number of Jamie’s works and took snapshots of several for my personal archive. These are two of the works I photographed (the images below are professional versions I snagged from elsewhere):

Jamie’s wife and artistic muse, Phyllis, died in January of this year, and the exhibit we saw at the Farnsworth featured his paintings of and about her.

This week, my friend Jane sent me a 2016 issue of the Saturday Evening Post that she came across, containing a 12-page article by Irene Rawlings about Jamie Wyeth. Jane had been with us on the Maine excursion and shared the visit to the Farnsworth.

Here’s what the article quoted Jamie saying about his work: “I hate the idea of ‘now I’m creating a painting for an audience.’ My painting is simply recording my ife and my thoughts, as if I were doing a diary.”

That is awesome!

Here’s the Jamie Wyeth painting that the article opened with:

I think Patriot Barn is a great example of what he meant when he said he was simply recording his thoughts as if he were creating a diary.

So, rock on, Jamie Wyeth. You do what I want to do! Only I want to do it in watercolor

Marian Wiseman
Watercolorist