Ewa Zebrowski: Finding Wyeth

Ewa Zebrowski's new book project takes a look at the quiet world of a master painter, revealing a sense of place, light, and New England sensibilities. Ewa's wonderful limited edition artist's book titled, Finding Wyeth, captures images of the Olson House located on the Cushing Peninsula in Maine, where for 30 years Andrew Wyeth created over 300 paintings, including his famous painting, Christina's World.  The book comes in an edition of 20 and is available through Ewa: exebrowski@hotmail.com

 I walked in, went upstairs, and suddenly I was startled.

There was another figure standing there.

It was me in a dusty mirror…

The reason I did it was that I wanted a portrait

of the dryness of the place,

that special sort of dryness of dead flies

that are left in a room that’s been closed for years.

                                                      Andrew Wyeth

                                           on painting The Revenant, 1949

The Olson House

 Andrew Wyeth spent a lot of time some three  decades (1939-1968), at the Olson House (which belongs to the Farnsworth Art Museum), on the Cushing Peninsula in Maine, talking, sketching, painting, finding inspiration.

Alvaro and Christina Olson, the bother and sister who lived there, became his friends.  He used an upstairs room as his studio, where he painted over 300 paintings.  It was the view from a third story window that inspired his well known/iconic painting, Christina's World.

I visited the empty house during the summer of 2010, a house filled with tangible emotion and light.  A house pregnant with stories and secrets.

       A bouquet of tangled wildflowers,

       tiny seashells in a bird’s nest,

       empty glass canning jars,

peeling wallpaper

and silence,

the residue of so much emotion

in this old weathered wooden house

on a hill,

filled with light

and vanished dreams,

the black horse wandering lost,

the apples ripe on the ground.

                                                         EMZ