N.C. Wyeth and the TREASURE ISLAND illustrations

     Currently on exhibit at the Brandywine River Museum  in Chadds Ford, PA are 16 of the original paintings of pirates, swashbucklers and high sea adventurers that N.C. Wyeth painted for Robert Louis Stevenson's book TREASURE ISLAND.  This is the first time in 100 years that all the painting have been assembled together.  Unfortunately one of the illustrations was lost in a fire in 1952.  The paintings come from the 1911 edition of TREASURE ISLAND, and established Wyeth as one of the most important illustrators of the day. Charles Schribner's Sons, publisher of the book, paid Wyeth $2,500 for the illustrations and he used the proceeds to buy 18 acres along the Brandywine River. Wyeth's house where he raised his family of extraordinary artistic children and where he built his studio and made quite a comfortable living as an illustrator still stand in Chadd's Ford. The house and studio are now open for tours. I have had the good fortune of being able to visit Chadd's Ford and the Brandywine River Museum.  This area is full of people and places that N.C. Wyeth's son Andrew has made noteworthy through his paintings over the years, but more of that in another blog.




N.C. Wyeth in his studio ca. 1903-04

     Most of the TREASURE ISLAND illustrations are owned by the Brandywine River Museum and the Wyeth family. These illustrations by Wyeth have been influential in movie and stage settings for any TREASURE ISLAND production since these images first appeared in the 1911 edition., becoming the definitive version of what a swashbuckling pirate should look and act like. From correspondence we know that these 3' x 4' works were done in about 3 1/2 months, an incredible pace and quite a bit larger than most illustrations were typically done. The paintings were reproduced down to about 6 or 7 inches tall for the book. The book was already a success, published first in the late 1800's, but the past illustrations had been line drawings for the most part.   These highly detailed, vividly descriptive paintings full of color, breathed new life into the already loved book, making Long John Silver and Billy Bones actually jump off the page. Wyeth used familiar places, neighbors and acquaintances for his models and inspiration.  He chose passages from the book that he thought would easily translate visually.

Jim, Long John Silver and his Parrot

A view of Wyeth's studio located behind his home in Chadd's Ford. The studio is as he left it, with an unfinished commissioned painting still on the easel. Wyeth was suddenly killed in a car and train collision a few miles from where he lived. The staircase has wheels so that it could easily be moved around in order to reach the large scale paintings that Wyeth most often did.  Notice the large almost floor to ceiling windows to the left that provided an abundance of natural light for him to work in.

     A 1916 silent movie of "Treasure Island" modeled its costumes and character types after Wyeth's work, and actor Lionel Barrymore said in a newspaper interview that his portrayal of Billy Bones was inspired by Wyeth's archetype. Disney animators interpreted Wyeth's style for the 1950s "Treasure Island" as well as the futuristic "Treasure Planet" from 2002.

     "No director had a finer production illustrator than N.C. Wyeth," director Fraser Heston says in a letter included in the exhibit. The son of Charlton Heston, he based his "Treasure Island" storyboards on Wyeth's work for a 1989 movie starring his father as peg-legged pirate Long John Silver.

Billy Bones  - From this illustration, one can easily recognize how our image of what a pirate is supposed to look like comes from Wyeth's creation.

Mary Blair

Mary Blair with Walt Disney

   

Scene from It's A Small World

     The Google logo celebrated the 100th birthday of artist Mary Blair today. I only knew of Mary Blair's work at Disney with her design of the It's A Small World ride in Disney World, but as I researched her I found that she did lots of other work for Disney as well.  I have posted some of my favorites:

The hookah smoking caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland, 1951

Cinderella, 1950

Peter Pan, 1953

     Mary Blair also did ads for such companies as Pall Mell cigarettes, Hanes Underwear, Meadow Gold and Dutch Boy Paints, to name a few. Here is my favorite cigarette ad, I love the fresh waternelon behind the cigarettes.  Does this imply that cigarettes are as good for you as fresh fruit, and in the same category?

Ad for Pall Mell

Hanes underwear ad

     Here is some of Blair's work, pre-Disney:

Backyards

Self-Portrait

       I also learned that Blair's husband, Lee Blair and brother-in-law, Preston Blair both did work for Disney  as well. Lee Blair worked for Disney in the late '30's and '40's, working on such projects as Pinocchio, Bambi and Fantasia. My favorite watercolor of his is of a self-portrait, such a handsome man. He went on to work for an ad agency in New York City, how glamorous!  The self portrait is posted below:

Lee Blair, self-portrait

     My favorite of the three, though, is the work of Preston Blair, such a great discovery today! This is my absolute favorite, I want to be the girl in this watercolor, if just for an evening. Notice the penthouse view of a New York City skyline. On my first trip to NYC I saw a couple dressed much like this, coming out of the Waldorf Astoria.  I imagined all kinds of scenarios for them, never knowing their actual story.

Man and Woman Kissing

 Here is a link to the three Blair artists. 

Caravaggio: Behold the Man

" Behold the Man"  c. 1605-06

     

The Columbus Museum of Art is the only U.S. stop for the baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio's piece, "Ecce Homo: Behold the Man," painted around 1606. The painting depicts a scene from the account in the New Testament's book of John, chapter 19 in which Pontius Pilate displays Jesus to the crowd and mockingly declares, "behold, the man."  Jesus is draped in robes and wearing a crown of thorns.  Art historians believe that the face of Pilate is that of an older Caravaggio. Caravaggio's face is also depicted as that of the giant in his painting of "David With the Head of Goliath."

"David with the Head of Goliath" c. 1597-99

 

 

 

     
     Only about 80 of Caravaggio's paintings survive but his influence was strong enough to inspire the term, "Caravaggiesque."  The other 10 paintings in this exhibit, all taken from Ohio museums and one private collector, were inspired by Caravaggio's style of realism depicting severe, raw passionate emotions with shafts of light highlighting his subject's otherwise dark surroundings. A Baroque painting can be identified as such by these characteristic distinctive patches of light and dark .His models were often found in the streets and painted in a realistic manner much to the disapproval of the church and its patrons, which were accustomed to a calmer more idealized interpretation. Caravaggio's subjects were shocking and too real for his day.

      Caravaggio lifestyle was as passionate and fervent as his paintings. His drunken brawls and flamboyant lifestyle resulted in multiple arrests, attempts on his life and he killed a man that resulted in a Papal death warrant that forced him to live as an exile. He attempted to return to Rome to receive a pardon but died in Tuscany at the age of 38 possibly from lead poisoning.

"Judith Beheading Holofernes" c. 1598 

     To celebrate the opening of this show, the museum will host two parties and a fundraiser this Saturday. Inspired by the bad boy of Baroque, Caravaggio-A-Go-Go will celebrate all things Italian and will offer guests a trip through some of Italy's cities, a sampling of regional foods, arias from select Italian operas, an orchestra with "Frank Sinatra" and of course Italian wines. This event is black tie and VIP Tickets are $650. The less extravagant of the two parties, $100/ticket, will celebrate in bawdy Caravaggio style the seven deadly sins of gluttony, greed, lust, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. The two parties will merge at the end of the evening.  How fun does all this sound?!?  Wish I was going.  I do hope to get to Columbus before the exhibit closes February 5, 2012.  The museum is located at 480 East Broad St. in Columbus, OH

Mixed Media

     There's only a few days left to see this delightful exhibit by Marge Fulton from Hazard, KY.  It's at the Big Sandy Community and Technical College (BSCTC) in Prestonsburg, KY.  There are about 30 pieces in the show and much of  the work has such detail and variety of mediums that a person could ponder on each piece for quite a while.  Much of the exhibit follows the path of art journaling with the use of text as well as images resulting in this show becoming a very thought provoking as well as aesthetically pleasing experience.

     I was pleased to be able to finally meet artist/instructor Tim Sizemore while at the BSCTC gallery.  What little bit I talked to him I realized he is quite an interesting individual. I asked him if he could maybe start a Facebook page or something so that those of us in the community could be kept up to date as to the exhibits that are going on at the college. I haven't seen one yet, when I do I will post the link here.  Marge mailed me the above pictured postcard that announced her exhibit, which was a great idea and left me with a little souvier of sorts to remember the exhibit.  I keep a scrapbook of all the art exhibits and museums that I attend and this postcard will go into my scrapbook.
     I attended an Art Journaling Workshop taught by Marge at the Appalachian Artisan Center in Hindman, KY a while back and loved it.  Marge is a great instructor and had an unbelievable amount of supplies that she so generously shared with us.  The workshop was great fun and I hope that she will do more things like that in the future.  It did my heart good to set aside some time just to be creative and also to be around others that understand that need to create and express yourself. Here is a link to the Artisan Center in Hindman:

http://www.artisancenter.net/

I think my favorite piece in the Mixed Media exhibit was one made from several different materials, layers and textures, all on a reclaimed block of wood.  It is amazing to think that so many of its elements could have been viewed as worthless and ready for the trash, but the artist's choices made each item work together to become a work of art.  Magical.

My favorite piece from the exhibit features an image of Bob Dylan.  Sorry but I can't remember the title.

Portraits and Dreams



Wendy Ewald



Poster for lecture



View from SKCTC Campus

    

     The beautiful fall mountain scenery alone was worth the drive to the Whitesburg campus of Southeast Community and Technical College (SKCTC) to hear Wendy Ewald lecture Monday night.  I was fortunate enough to have two of my "children" (now young adults), Maggie and Ben to go with me. Whitesburg is close to the Virginia border and it is amazing how much higher the mountains are there compared to the ones I'm used to living in between. Such a noticable difference in such a relatively short distance, it took us about an hour to get there, marveling at the blotches of orange, rust, red and gold that the trees are beginning to display.  In a few more days they will totally explode with color, they are just on the brink of it now.

     Ewald spoke and showed slides from her project, "helping children to see," not only in the mountains of East Kentucky, but  in Canada, Columbia, India and Saudi Arabia, to name a few of the other places.  It was enlightening to see her and her student's work and have her personal commentary, as a sort of behind the scenes narrative, to go along with the images. Part of a documentary that is still in the works was shown in which she comes back to Letcher County Kentucky and visits with her former students. They speak of  that time with her and what it meant to them as young children.  Some of her former students were in the audience Monday night.  One man recounted how he remembered Ewald reading to them and how he was touched by a poem that she had read.  He said that was the first time he had ever heard poetry read.  He also expressed that as a child he had read about people that were different from him, that lived in other places, but Ewald was the first person that he had ever seen that was not like him.  In other words, a person that was not an Appalachian.  Another woman spoke about how looking at those images and knowing what she knows now, as an educator and about poverty in East Kentucky,  she could see that they were all poor, but  didn't know it, they didn't feel poor at the time. As an Appalachian I could identify with the feelings the gentleman had of knowing that he had seen somone different than him and of the woman saying she was poor but didn't know it.

     Two images of a little blonde girl, both self portraits, were quite interesting. The girl titled one, "I am Dolly Parton" and the other shot was called "I am the Girl with the Snake."  Ewald shared with the audience that Dolly Parton had somehow come across the photo and wrote the girl a letter.  I'm sure that Dolly could identify with that little girl living in poverty, her hopes and dreams were probably similar to the ones Dolly had growing up in East Tennessee. Ewald pointed out that the portrait of the girl with a snake wrapped around her was done long before any Hollywood starlet ever had a similar shot done to show how glamorous or cool they were.



Photographer Brett Bentley

     The October issue of Kentucky Monthly magazine features Floyd County's own Brett Bentley of Martin, Ky. Bentley's simplistic image of a single fall leaf graces the cover, along with a six page spread of several other images of Kentucky's glorious fall foliage on the inside. Bentley writes a short article along with his photographs describing how he got started with his hobby. Along with his photography, he also hand crafts his own frames to showcase his work  His work has been recognized in other magazines and contests as well. He is a member of the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen.

Here is the link to Kentucky Monthly:

http://kentuckymonthly.com/

Link to Bentley's website:

http://www.photobentley.com/

Photographer Wendy Ewald

     I'm excited to hear photographer Wendy Ewald lecture at the Whitesburg campus of SKCTC tonight.  She will be in the auditorium of the Belinda Mason Building from 7:00 pm -10:00 pm. Ewald is an internationally known photographer with many books on her photography projects as well as work published in magazines such as Psychology Today, Art in America, Harper;s and Time-Life. 
      Ewald lived and taught in Letcher County from 1974 -1982.  She has photographed in many parts of the world but the one of most interest to me is that of her stay in East Kentucky. That time period produced the books, Appalachia:  A Self Portrait, Appalachian Women:  Three Generations, Portraits and Dreams:  Photographs and Stories by Children of the Appalachians.
     Part of Ewald's presentation tonight will include images by her and her students during her stay in Letcher County as well as video from a new documentary project which follows up on former students who are now adults.
    The event is free and open to the public.  It is part of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Here is a link that gives detail of Ewald's career.

http://literacythroughphotography.wordpress.com/wendy-ewald/