Jamie Wyeth

James Browning Wyeth, known as Jamie Wyeth, continues a long family tradition of art-making in his detailed, representational but often mysterious paintings of buildings, people, and animals that express the tenor of life in rural Pennsylvania and coastal Maine. Son of distinguished painter Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) and grandson of Newell Convers (“N.C.") Wyeth (1882-1945), who remains best known for his children's book illustrations, James grew up on his family's farm in the Brandywine Valley in southeastern Pennsylvania. He left school at the age of twelve to study at home with a tutor, as his father had done. Jamie Wyeth learned painting from his aunt, artist Carolyn Wyeth (1910-1994). Another aunt and two uncles also were painters. In 1963, Jamie Wyeth moved to New York City, where he held his first solo exhibition a few years later, at the age of twenty.

In his early work, Jamie Wyeth focused on portraits in oils, depicting celebrities like President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) (after his assasination), writer and cultural figure Lincoln Kerstien (1907-1996), and ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev (1938-1993), among others. Wyeth also painted murals while serving in the Delaware Air National Guard between 1966 and 1971, and he provided illustrations recording details of the space probes launched by the United States. In 1974, he created visual records of hearings and trials relating to the so-called Watergate scandal that eventually brought about the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Wyeth has received numerous commissions, among them designs for the U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Mint, and has volunteered his services to the Special Olympics and the movement to conserve Maine's historic lighthouses. Wyeth spends much of his time painting in one such lighthouse on a private island on the Maine coast, and he also paints on his Pennsylvania farm.