When I was about 14, having just entered high school, I gave myself a crash course on art history. Deciding that since I was going to be an artist, I needed to know where I fit into the grand scheme of things.

   One of the people I discovered was Andrew Wyeth, a modern master living in the state next to mine. It wasn't just his realism in art, it was the mood & subject. He painted country subjects, but not in a sentimental way. There was a desolation, a contented loneliness no matter whether he was painting a farm building, a landscape or a portrait. He used a wonderful palette filled with orchres & browns, it was amazing how many shades he got out of his limited range of color.It was always fall or winter in his world. When I took a bus trip through Pennsylvania in my teens, I saw the rich colors of his native landscape in the midwinter fields going by.  

   You all have seen his pictures, the most famous being "Christina's World", where the crippled lady sets in the field gazing at the stone buildings on a far hill. Or the hound sleeping on the bed, weak sunlight streaming through the window called "Master Bedroom".

    His portraits, mainly of neighbors, show self-sufficient people against a dark Rembrant-esque background. His buildings look old and rugged, standing against the weather. His scenic paintings have a delicious ominous feeling, a mood both riveting & threatening.He worked mostly in egg tempera, a meticulous medium that is perfect for his sense of detail.

   Part of a long line of artists, his father being N.C. Wyeth the illustrator, his son Jamie paints animals in a more whimsical way and his siblings were all artistic as well. The amount of talent in that gene pool is astounding. And today is the birthday of the most famous member of the family.