Fallen 1975

Jamie Wyeth gave us this painting of a fallen tree, made with earthy tones and decisive brushstrokes. I'm really drawn to the raw, almost visceral, quality of the wood. The way Wyeth layers the paint, thin in some areas and thick in others, gives the piece a real sense of depth. It’s like you could reach out and feel the bark, or the damp earth clinging to the roots. In the top third of the painting, the dark brown of the roots contrasts with the pale yellows and greys of the fallen trunk in the foreground. He’s really thought about the materiality of paint, its ability to mimic textures and evoke emotional responses. It reminds me a little of Guston's late work, how he embraced this kind of rough, almost clumsy style to convey something really profound. And that’s what art’s all about, right? It’s about embracing the mess, the ambiguity, and finding something beautiful in the process.