Page 24 - The Hunt - Spring 2024

He loves the drama of weathering the many storms out on those islands.”
Wyeth himself adds, “There’s nothing there except the winds and the seas.”
All that time alone allows Wyeth to focus on things we might not see. “Jamie’s penetrating gaze sees into the electricity of life vibrating through his subjects, whether animate or inanimate,” Manning says.
Wyeth credits his Aunt Carolyn, daughter of N.C., as an early inspiration. “People see the name Wyeth, and they expect open fields and old barns,” he says. “But her work is intensely personal—very strong stuff. She really was
a very peculiar person. When her father died, she sort of assumed him—she started wearing his clothes. That’s when I first
knew her.”
Wyeth also talks of his affinity for his
grandfather’s studio, describing it as a wonderland filled with uniforms, cutlasses, spyglasses and other things that appeared in N.C.’s illustrations for books like Treasure Island. “I’d walk up the hill to his studio and trudge down the hill to Daddy’s studio. He was working on ... grass and dead birds,” Wyeth
When asked about his painting “Carolyn Wyeth’s Irises” and the reappearance of these flowers in his other works, Wyeth is bluntly honest. “I steal a lot, and I’ve stolen from her a lot,” he says. “That’s why I’ve stayed with Carolyn’s irises—and I love her spruce trees.”
22 THE HUNT MAGAZINE spring 2024
recalls. “Well, that didn’t interest me. As an 8-year-old kid, I wanted knights in armor.” For her part, Burdan describes Carolyn
Wyeth’s paintings as “off-kilter.” “Things tend to slide and slope; they aren’t quite the realism you’ve come to expect from a Wyeth family member,” she says. “When Jamie embraces that aspect, he always looks more like Carolyn.”
Whenaskedabouthispainting,“Carolyn Wyeth’s Irises” and the reappearance of these flowers in his other works, Wyeth is bluntly honest. “I steal a lot, and I’ve stolen from her
a lot,” he says. “That’s why I’ve stayed with Carolyn’s irises—and I love her spruce trees.
I love the strange shape of these things. They bring a whole other dimension into a painting.”
The way Burdan sees it, that dimension is just under the surface of the natural world.
“I constantly see Jamie’s paintings as pivotal scenes of film—the moment the suspect
is revealed, the moment of most danger, establishing shots where you are about to walk into this house. By controlling our emotions, putting us on pins and needles, maintaining high tension, drama and trepidation in the paintings, Jamie maintains his hold upon you.”
To that end, Wyeth recalls something Stephen King told him after purchasing one of his paintings: “Jamie, you’re one of the scariest painters I know.”
Visit brandywine.org/museum and somervillemanning.com.