Andrew Wyeth | The Helga Pictures
Posted on July 6th, 2009 by Scott Allen
Cover featuring Braids (Tempera)
After picking up Andrew Wyeth | The Helga Pictures, I had to share some visual and literal highlights. First, here’s a little back story..
“The Helga Pictures” are a fantastic compilation of tempera and dry brush paintings, watercolours and pencil studies secretly created within a span of over fifteen years. Andrew Wyeth created over two hundred and forty individual works of neighbour Helga Testorf from 1971 to 1985 without telling a single person, including his wife. He stated that he would not have been able to have finished the project with everyone looking at it.
Braids (Detail)
Braids (Study)
Sheepskin (Tempera)
Pageboy (Drybrush)
“Drybrush is layer upon layer.
It is what I would call a definite weaving process.
You weave the layers of drybrush over and within the broad washes of watercolor.”
Pageboy (Detail)
Lovers (Drybrush)
“There is motion in Rembrandt – his people turning toward the light.
But it’s frozen motion; time is holding its breath for an instant – and for eternity.
That’s what I’m after.”
Lovers (Study)
On Her Knees (Study)
Oct 11th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I have loved Wyeth’s work since I saw his first book as a teenager. Was recently at the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine and saw originals for the first time – there are not enough adjectives to describe how unbelievably great his work is. Wyeth will soon be known as the greatest American painter ever. He was truly an abstract painter who painted in a realism style – he could not deny himself that he actually saw all the minute details of what he was painting. If anyone wants further insight on Wyeth read his biography A Secret Life – he was an amazing man who had absolute control over what he was doing – his paintings are very powerful. Thanks so much for the posting – very interesting website. Keep up the good work.
Oct 20th, 2010 at 10:03 am
He is a genius, not in sight, but in mind.
He exactly saw the world in mind and exactly restructured it again by colors and strokes.
He knew the nature of light better than any other artists.
Mar 30th, 2011 at 5:54 am
He is a master… like Durer!
Jul 1st, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Él es un maestro, como Ricardo Rocha (México 1937 – 2008)
Aug 16th, 2011 at 5:58 pm
[...] Cure the Blind В» Andrew Wyeth | The Helga Pictures Jul 6, 2009 … After picking up Andrew Wyeth | The Helga Pictures, I had to share some visual and literal … [...]
Oct 4th, 2011 at 4:31 pm
I just bought this book at a library sale and it’s an astounding body of work. The tempera you chose above..”Sheepskin”…unmatched since the old masters. Now I need to see them in person. Love this website btw.
Nov 11th, 2011 at 9:42 pm
THIS is how a master painter paints a woman with whom he is profoundly in love. Every line, every volume, every blemish and stray strand of hair is saturated with love, and first defined and understood with the fingertips before translated into brush strokes.