So grateful to Jamie Wyeth for sharing his thoughts about painting, and for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for making/sharing this video. I'm an artist who really enjoys seeing how other artists think/work. Thanks again.
Amazing piece....working watercolor like oils....a wonderful thought...I have used oils like watercolor this sounds much much more appealing, thanks you for sharing your process..... Laura
Dear Mr Wyeth....love the work....amazing organic process....but the licking of the tip of the brush is a real worry! We have an artist here in OZ by the name of Hannaford who is of the belief he gave himself cancer by putting brush tips on his lips. The pigments are toxic (even in watercolour) so putting fingers in your mouth after smudging paint is not safe. You are a talented artist.....I would like to see you paint into old age! Use the fingers if you must (although many artists now wear latex gloves) but no more licking brushes....use water and a rag to regulate dampness! Cheers....from another organic artist who gets a bit close to materials and mediums! :)
I remember a article about the clock ladies being encouraged to re-wet their brushes in their mouths... The paint was radioactive See Radium Girls wiki page.
Love this video. I like how when Wyeth is in his element he seems almost feline-- the way he intuitively licks his brush and almost sounds as if he's purring throughout :D
Fabulous piece on this master. Amazing intensity in his approach. I wonder if those yellows and oranges are cadmiums....dangerous business with a brush and paint in mouth technique.
Yes, cadmium's are just as toxic in watercolor. The issue is the same as oils in that it's cumulative and builds up in your lymph nodes and liver. So over time you can poison yourself or get cancer.
Oh My God he is really starting to look like his dad! His family are geniuses, btw! I love the illustrative works of NC, like most, and his dad was a revolutionary as well. This "kid" is super talented as well. Love the Wyeths.
When I was a kid, we didn't have money, so I took all the extra fliers and coupon sheets leftover from my paper route and I would draw and sketch on the blank backsides of the paper. It would be cheap paper, brightly colored, sometimes the ads on the other side would have bled through, but I loved to draw on it. I had a stack of this one flier, 300 odd pages of bright yellow heavy card, and I used it all up. The problem is now I have trouble "desecrating" clean white expensive paper with anything less than genius. So there's a lot of procrastination in my studio. Eventually I make a sacrifice, on a piece of scrap paper, a drawing that's better than any finished work, to appease my own anxiety, so that I can finally use the clean white paper. Cardboard. Hmmmm........
As a painter sometimes I breathe while calculating my next step. It just helps to keep centered when you're in the heat of the moment. It can be intense or mentally taxing.
Anyone can explain why he looks at the painting through his fingers? His father did the same thing. Is it to focus more on a specific part of the painting?
I've seen a couple artists now on RU-vid lick their brush...can't understand that? Also, if you are going to use watercolor paint straight out of the tube, why not just use acrylics? Got to be a lot less expensive, especially for a larger painting like this.
Of course, when a support, be it canvas, wood or paper, is primed well with, for example, gesso, the paint never touches it directly. Still, for an artist who comments on the longevity of honey, one might expect a more substantial support than corrugated cardboard. I notice that no one connected with this project deigned to reply to any of the comments.
4:00 I would be curious to find out how much saliva there is in famous paintings. I know I use some myself, often without thinking about it, but I usually apply it with my finger, I sure don't lick my paint brushes!
I’m torn. Without the Wyeth name, would we all be fawning over “gulls”? The use of watercolors in the manner he uses them is unique, and yes, very unhealthy. Regarding archival aspects of this and that, cardboard vs acid-free paper, he doesn’t care. He’s in a realm that 99.8% of us artists will never know or enter...his portraits are masterful, I wish he could find sustained interest in continuing them.
My exact thought on non-acid free materials, especially using watercolor. This is clearly one serious work he created and the vibrant colors won’t be there in future
His method appears to be a vigorous scrubbing technique with his brushes. I am far too much of a cheapskate to paint in that manner lol Interesting clip though!
hahaha, you do realize a shit ton of famous paintings from the 19th and 18th centuries in museums are on cardboard. Almost all of Toulouse lautrecs work, even some of the albert beirstadts are done on cardboard.
This would be better in higher resolution, without the cheesy background audio of the gulls and fire and what is up with that lip-flapping noise he keeps making, even when he's done painting ? lol
+Shirley Armstrong I think he said he likes cardboard as a support because it's trash. Honestly that's pretty much all he had to say for me to know I would find nothing of value to me here. To each their own I suppose.
The cardboard Wyeth uses here is not the same as what is used for boxes and such. It's a archival cardboard. Do you really think the Wyeth would use something that would fall apart in a few years?
@mrdog66 why not? some artists knowing, that their paints are fugitive, continue using them because they don't care. just read some artist's forum. some take care about longevity of their works and others don't give a shit about it - once sold that's no longer their problem. 'archival cardboard' i'm not sure if you honestly believe that.
Jamie Wyeth is known to have painted on regular, corrugated cardboard since the 1970s. It is only recently he stated he now uses an "archival" version, but seriously, archival cardboard? I'm a representational oil painter myself and I'll believe it when I see it.
I don't know if there is such a thing. I was stating what I read. Actually it is their problem, as selling artwork for tens of thousands or in Wyeth's case a lot more money, that kind of thing can come back to bight him. Odd Nerdrum had to buy back a lot of his paintings that were having all sorts of issues due to some kind of faulty medium he used. Cost him a lot.
