Despite the fact that my preference is always for people, places, and things that are non-famous, there are a very few for whom I hold deep admiration for despite their notoriety. Which brings us to the Wyeth's.
I liked Andrew Wyeth before I knew who Andrew Wyeth was.
Which brings us to Brandywine.
If you are unfamiliar with the Brandywine region of Pennsylvania I would probably advise you to immediately stop what you are doing and go there right now. But then on second thought, no, please don't go because I am terrified that too many people will discover its immense greatness and beauty and peacefulness and serenity and then it will go from being a genuinely magical place to being overrun and therefore ruined by tourists. So don't go there after all. I'ts boring, you'd hate it.
Brandywine, or more specifically, Chadds Ford, is where the Wyeth family hails from. I'm not going to get into their history - there's a zillion websites with that information so just do a Google search if you are so inclined. I have been traversing that area for years and a bunch of my photographs that have turned into my artwork have come from all around there...all of this long before I knew anything of the Wyeth's and their deep connection with that region which is what I meant when I said above that I like AW before I knew who he was. You see, me and Andrew...well, we like the same things. That's what I discovered when I finally did discover him and so he has a permanent position on the very very short list of Famous People Sharon Is In Awe Of.
For awhile now I have been wanting to sort of walk in the footsteps of AW on his home turf. I can't figure out why I haven't before now since I live relatively close to the area. Maybe the time just wasn't right. They do tours of his places - like, the kind where everyone gets on a tiny bus and gets driven here and there and everyone moves around shuffling and stuck together as one entity while some volunteer points things out - which someday I'll probably get around to doing but that's not in any way how I really like to do things.
It might be pretty easy to figure out that I am not a tour bus kinda gal.
JP had a rare day off yesterday and I had to go to the Wilmington gallery where my next art show will be to discuss a few things. Naturally the plan was to head to Brandywine afterward since the gallery is about a 10 minute drive away so we set out for a bit of adventuring and some lunch. I knew where we were going, I just had to find it which proved to be really easy.
Yes, we went to AW's studio yesterday...
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| Andrew Wyeth studio |
...and it kind of felt sacred there. It's hard for me write that because it can be interpreted wrong. I mean, if AW himself were there and I ran into him - which would be kind of weird being that he's dead and all - I most certainly would not gush over him. But when you are there, right where he created so much wonder and magic...well, yeah, sacred.
If you have any familiarity with AW's work, you might know a little something about Kuerner's Farm and it was quite great to also be right there yesterday.
Please note how great the sky is. We were so lucky to have a perfectly cloudy and mild winter day. Brandywine is so perfect when it's cloudy and when it's winter. It's beautiful in the summertime, too, but you will miss a lot at that time of year...and it's a lot more crowded. I'm certain there are a lot of people who would disagree but AW wouldn't have been one of them:
We tried to go to the Brandywine Battlefield also because it, too, is a very special place - there's a feel to it that I can't describe - but it was closed for the season. The battlefield is a very short distance from AW's studio.
I took the above picture because of the below picture.
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| Photo courtesy of the Christian C. Sanderson Museum, (c) 2016 |
At this point we got hungry. There is no other place to go when one is having a Wyeth Day in Brandywine than Hank's Place, where AW was a regular at their counter.
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| Hank's Place, Chadds Ford, PA |
Please don't miss Hank's Place if you visit Brandywine even if you're not having a Wyeth Day. Do you like good, real food? Do you like comfort food? Do you like diners? On the weekends they're super crowded so choose your time accordingly. And if you go in the warm months, take note of the amazing flowers outside that Hank's Place will be covered in. Brandywine River flows right behind here.
Of course we had to sit at the counter. There's only a handful of counter seats and we had our choice of them even though the place was really busy. I sat at the end, right under this picture:
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| Framed picture of Andrew Wyeth above the counter at Hank's Place, Chadds Ford, PA |
On the far wall you can see some of the Andrew Wyeth art prints that hang at Hank's Place.
I would be remiss if I didn't tell you what we had for lunch, right?
We had BLTs and a shared plate of french fries.
I am a french fry connoisseur and consider FFs to be a basic food group.
On a scale of 1 - 10, I give theirs a solid 9. Yup, that good.
I also got bread pudding to go.
My mother and grandmother were diner waitresses for years and years and I grew up on Elizabeth, New Jersey Greek diner bread pudding so if it's on the menu I must have it.
Hank's is good but it's missing raisins.
I can't wait to go back and try some of their Fancy Strawberry Pie when it's in season!
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| It's true: the people there are genuinely friendly |
Confession: I snooped at AW's studio After lunch we went back and I had to go around to see if the door sign was still there. Much to my great delight, it was, which made me jump up and down when I saw it. I have the same one hanging on my own studio door.
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| Door to Andrew Wyeth's studio. |
Please note that a very nice man from the Brandywine Conservancy rolled up in his truck and very nicely told us that we couldn't be there so we skedaddled. I told the nice man "sorry, I'm a fan" and he said "yes, I understand, so am I." Very nice.
Please also note that if AW very still around I would never in 10 gazillion years have barged in on him and if you know a living artist please don't barge in on them even if it's in your own house and they are just in the next room or upstairs or in the garage, etc. Interruptions are bad. Interruptions break the spell.
Never, ever break the spell.
I have lots more pictures that I will add at a later date but I wanted to add this one before I closed this post:
It might not come across very well here on Blogger, but take note of the colors in the above image.
This is not the best picture in terms of quality but you can get a feel of the winter Brandywine Valley/Chadds Ford landscape. I think it kind of shows a little bit of what might have influenced AW's paint palette. Do a Google search for AW or go to his website and look at his art; I think you'll see it, too.
Overall it was an exhilarating day. I can't wait to go back and I am so lucky that my house is an hour away from all of this. I have two months left of beautiful winter starkness before the landscape there starts changing and hiding all of its glory inside of its full bloom.
