A Huge Thank You and the Young Wyeths

Bruce Riddell's website

                                                             
First, I want to thank Greet from Belgian Pearls for sending my way such lovely people.  She was gracious enough to mention my blog on her own, and in a matter of minutes I heard from very supportive, interesting people.   Greet and her friends encouraged me to keep going, to know that there is some interest in what I post.  So, I wish all of you, but particularly my special friend, Greet, a beautiful day - a day full of sunshine and beauty just like the one above.  Thank you.

Now on to one of Andrew Wyeth's sons, Jamie, a gifted artist in his own right and one I greatly admire just as I do his father. Here is just a sampling of his work.

In addition to their home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, the Jamie Wyeths live on an island off the coast of Maine during the summer months.  It is peopled with, or should we say "sheeped with," sheep.  One of them most probably inspired this great painting.  Doesn't the ram seem to be proudly overlooking  his domain?

I think his portrait of John F. Kennedy is the most memorable portrait of a too short-lived president.  He looks pensive, concerned, and oh, so young.  A tragedy that his life ended so abruptly, but this portrait lives on as Jamie's tribute to our 35th president.  (The painting is great, my resolution is not.)

This is Jamie Wyeth's painting of his father.  Here I admire how the son has captured the feeling that the father sees what ordinary people never see, and it reflects his gravity of this vision.

This painting is absolutely huge, and when you see it at the Brandywine Museum, he (I think it is a "he") looks very proud, very proud and very huge.  I think I read in one of the museum's catalogs that this pig and one of his cohorts once ate a live rooster.  Only the rooster's feathers remained in the morning.  This is a pig not to mess around with.

And now:

The above and following images are from House and Garden magazine July 1984.
This  painting hangs over the young Wyeths' living room mantel.  While the living room is reminiscent of his mother and father's home, it's decor appears to be busier.  Take a look.

All the antiques in this room are period and authentic and very Pennsylvania.  Love even the red ware plates on that great trunk.  The ladder-back chair and tea table are so beautiful, and the art - well, it speaks for itself.

These photos are of the other side of the above room.  Even the simple windsor chair is exquisite.

The bottom pictures are of Jamie Wyeth, his wife, Phyllis, and perhaps the infamous pig of a rooster's demise.

Love the dining room, its table, and the hay bale painting above the low boy.  I think the Wyeths keep as their own, paintings that mean the most to them, and I recall reading that Jamie felt that the hay bale was as much a portrait as the ones he has done of people (or pigs for that matter).  More on the Wyeths, Pennsylvania kitchens and antiques soon.  

Now, in case you, my faithful reader, feel again I am not fulfilling the title of my blog, I offer the following kitchen photos.  They appeared in Country Living, March 2000 and hope they prove to you that I do have a direction, circuitous as it may be.

Wish we could see the other side of the island where the really things interesting things lie.  Cooking does look like it is about to happen here - maybe just tea or coffee with the cups and saucers on the table.  Not as great a kitchen as the Segreto one from my previous posting, but I was desperate to publish a room that lives up to my blog's title.  Aren't the stools from Segreto so much more interesting?  Remember though this kitchen is from 2000, and, while much of this kitchen is timeless, the stools are not.  But, you "gotta" love the rack holding the white pottery and those spring-colored flowers.

And lastly, may I offer you this promise of spring:

Till next time.

b