Walking In Wyeth Country
Scenes Andrew Wyeth would love are right in our back yard
Friday morning was just so perfect! I had to take pictures walking in the park.
I loved the clouds. Above is a scene Andrew Wyeth might like! It is a little manicured for his purposes — Wyeth enjoyed scrubbier landscapes. However the wide horizontal view would appeal to him.
Wyeth country, as my friend Barbara O’Neill would put it. Barbara and I did a hiking challenge together a year ago last winter. We would get lost for hours in conversation about Andrew Wyeth and his father, the great N.C. Wyeth. As a result we would get lost for real! I told the whole wild story here.
Andrew Wyeth liked great expanses with little variation. I read that he said that his famous painting “Christina’s World” …
… would have been better without Christina in it.
N.C. Wyeth did not understand his son’s preoccupation with scenes in which there was nothing. He once told Andrew Wyeth that the landscape he had painted was good, but it would be much better if his son had added a man with a gun.
I will have to check the exact words but that was the gist of it. I wrote about this artistic disagreement once before, inspired by winter Wyeth country.
Here in Buffalo, I have to say I have developed a taste myself for this kind of landscape.
Here is a picture I took at Tifft Nature Preserve. Oh, look! This was Dec. 31, 2023. Barbara was with me. It was our first hike on our hiking challenge.
Here I am on that hike. We had to take selfies to post to the hiking website.
We were hell bent on getting our badges, and we did!
Here is a picture I took in June of Wyeth country at Tifft. The season may change, but the look does not!
And a picture of the swamp at Tifft in August.
How about this? I took this picture once when I was lost at Tifft. I had managed to exit the park and I was in … Wyeth country!
Such inspiring scenes! No wonder Andrew Wyeth married a Buffalo girl. They got married in East Aurora, at her house, which was at 815 Fillmore Avenue, I think. It was in a biography I read of N.C. Wyeth. I did a search online and I do not believe the house is there any longer. Buffalo and its surrounding townships are always knocking things down.
Andy Wyeth's wife was the daughter of the Courier-Express's art editor. Her name was Betsy James. I forget her father's name and the book is back at the library. She met him in Maine when she was a teenager and her family was vacationing there. Summering there, the book said. With my long experience working for The Buffalo News, I am not sure how Mr. James was able to take summers off from his job at the Courier-Express. It must have been nice working for a newspaper in those days!
When Andy brought Betsy back to meet the family, N.C. yelled at him about bringing back girls in lipstick and shorts who looked as if they belonged on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.
N.C. reminds me of my dad! That is another topic for another day.
Looking back for other Wyeth landscapes I have photographed, I found this account of how I got hooked on N.C. Wyeth and his son Andrew. I had completely forgotten this is how it happened! This is why everyone should keep a diary, or a Web log, or something.
Writing this particular post, I am loving re-living how I enjoyed my Friday morning. It also inspires me.
I believe I will pack up my watercolors, as Andrew Wyeth did before me.
And head to Wyeth country!