Erin McGuire

After finally having a second to sit down and go through recent pictures, I only found one picture from Precollege that was worth saving. I'm not good at the whole remembering-to-take-pictures-because-you'll-want-to-remember-this-later concept, but in retrospect it was dumb on my part. This makes me smile though, so, for your enjoyment-

Watts, cool and collected, Cateris, eating something sour? and confused, Erin, almost out of the frame, and looking kind of weary

I also just got back from Pennsylvania. Probably the most redeeming day of the trip was visiting the Brandywine River Museum again. Brandywine houses a large collection of Wyeth artwork, and this time around there was a nice etching exhibit and American Illustration exhibit too. I know anyone who had (and enjoyed) Brandes's history class would have been as excited as I was. It was pretty exciting to see the paintings in person that we had studied in class. Howard Pyle, Harvey Dunn, Jessie Wilcox Smith, Maxfield Parrish, Dean Cornwell, all the golden age people were there, and it was all extremely humbling. Also, even though he kind of exists in a different realm of the art world, Andrew Wyeth's work is always exciting to see too, especially for someone who is trying to figure out watercolor.
Apart from that, I'll never get tired of seeing N.C. Wyeth's stuff. Now that we've learned about him, the work took on a different kind of dimension.

After going around the museum, we went on a tour of his house (above) and studio. I think being in Wyeth's studio was as close to a religious experience as I'll ever have. The room felt like magic.

The studio had the last painting he was working on when he died, and the reference set up he had been painting from, and looked like it had been more or less untouched in the past 50 years. The rounded window faced north, the light was indescribable. I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside, but I don't really think my crappy camera would have done any justice anyway. We went around his mural studio too, which is the part adjacent, with the many vertical windows. In the back was his prop closet, which was kind of funny to see. I was glad to be able to spend more time there. Definitely worth seeing for anyone who gives a damn about what illustration used to be.

And some recent sketches, all of which were done in Pennsylvania






Leaving again Thursday to camp. Can't stay in one place for too long anymore. Adieu