Recently I visited the Brandywine Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, which is a showcase for the work of the great American artist, Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009.

Seeing so many of his works in one place has inspired me to write an occasional series of artists (some still living) who have been successful by painting beautifully and well, drawing on a traditional approach to painting. Each has been succeeded in selling and making a living from their work because they knew that even in this era of Marxist propaganda (that seeks to destroy traditional art as emblematic of white patriarchy), beauty will appeal to ordinary people and will sell!

In many ways, Wyeth is similar in his approach to that of artists in the baroque of the 17th century. He is content to leave large areas of the painting muted in color, rendering them tonally; and then giving more color and contrast in those areas of primary contrast. He handles this balance masterfully. Anyone who could paint in this way would be a wonderful painter for the liturgy too as this is derived from forms originally developed to be in harmony with the liturgy.

Many of his paintings are in the medium of in egg tempera  - this is the one that icon painters use. This dries very quickly and is difficult to blend. In order to create a blurred effect, Wyeth tends to treat the paint as a crayon in which he blends using multiple strokes that become more dispersed in those areas that he intends to more diffuse. I think it is interesting that despite the fact that so much of his paintings are brown, black and white, we don't feel a sense of a lack of colour, because he knows the crucial focal points in which he must supply it. He also paints beautiful watercolors. In the above painting there is some pale blue in the glove!

The success of Wyeth as a painter - his work was always popular and he was recognized in his lifetime with awards from the American government for achievement - demonstrates to us artists that if we produce work of high enough quality, we can succeed. And if we are not successful...it is most likely because we are not good enough and should aim to get better! I have no patience for artists who blame their lack of success on the refusal of people to commission or buy their work.

I am hoping that readers can distinguish the watercolors, such as the ones above and below and one right at the bottom of this post, from the tempera paintings from the description of the style that Wyeth uses in tempera.