American
A painter of landscape and figurative subjects in Pennsylvania and Maine, Andrew Wyeth became one of the best-known American painters of the 20th century. His style is deceptively realistic with compositions based on natural abstract elements in natural light. His richly pigmented and direct, highly textured watercolors are his playground for finding images that strike a resonance within. In Wyeth's more formal egg tempera paintings he can freeze crisp shards of daily rural life in time with meticulous detail and technique. He was born in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and was trained by his father, American illustrator and muralist Newell Convers Wyeth. In 1937, Wyeth's first one-man show of Maine watercolors sold out at the Macbeth Gallery in New York. Andrew first spent his summers in Port Clyde, Maine with his family, but after his marriage to Betsy James in 1940, he and his wife went regularly to Cushing. From Pennsylvania to Maine, Wyeth formed close friendships with, and painted, many of his cherished neighbors. Wyeth became the first visual artist to be nominated for the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 1990, Wyeth was the first artist to receive the Congressional Gold Medal. Andrew and Betsy Wyeth had two sons, Nicholas and Jamie Browning. Jamie is now a prominent American artist, and Nicholas is in the field of aviation. In 2009 at the age of 91 Andrew Wyeth died in his sleep. — Watercolor Masters: Andrew Wyeth © 2010 Greg Conley —
