Wind from the Sea, 1947 -- This ordinary coastal Maine window in Christina Olson's attic had been been sealed for years.

Wyeth recalled that window, "Of all my work at the Olsons this seems to me to be one that expresses a great deal without too much in it. I walked up into the dry, attic room one day. It was a hot summer day in August, so hot that I went over to that window, push it up about six inches and stood there, looking out, all of a sudden this curtain that had been lying there stale for years, God knows how long, began to rise, and the birds crocheted on it began to move. My hair about stood on end."

Andrew Wyeth was born 100 years ago in July of 1917. In celebration of his 100th year, this retrospecive exhibition has been organized by the Seattle Art Museum in partnership with the Brandywine River Museum of Art. Information of the individual paintings below is from museum placards.

The Kuerners ... Near Wyeth's family farm near Chadds Ford, Pennylvania, was the stark white weathered farmhouse of his neighbors, Karl and Anna Kuerner. As a child, Andrew would walk the hills of the Kuerner farm and in time, he became friends with both Karl and Anna. Eventually, they invited Andrew into their house. With the Kuerner's agrarian values and dedication to hard work, their farm seized Andrew's imagination. The Kuerners and their farm came to be one of Andrew Wyeth's mainstays, the subject of many of his works for over fifty years.

Brown Swiss, 1947 -- On a November afternoon, Wyeth climbed Kuerner's Hill, looked back over his shoulder and saw the Kuerner farmhouse, mirrored, upside down in the pond below.

Snow Hill, 1981 -- "Snow Hill" is a reference to Moby Dick, a hump like a snow hill, a metaphor for the whale who destroyed Captain Ahab. For Wyeth, Kuerner's Hill served as a metaphor for his father, his own nemesis, his great white whale.

Karl and Anna (Kuerner) 1971 -- In 1971, Karl Kuerner was dying of leukemia. Anna hired Helga Testorf to help with Karl's care. Andrew helped hold vigil during Karl's illness, and at times, holed up in the Kuerners' upstairs room to paint Helga. During these months, Andrew studied the Kuerners' marriage up close. Forced into exile after World War I, Anna lived almost wholly within herself, often mumbling in German. A slight woman, she was detached from Karl, yet fulfilled her household duties heroically and selflessly. Usually, she was unwilling to pose for Andrew.

Winter, 1946 -- Neighbor boy Allen Lynch is pictured running helter skelter down Kuerner's Hill toward the railroad crossing where Andrew's father N.C. Wyeth was killed just month's earlier. Wyeth said, "The boy was me at a loss, really."

Young Bull, 1960 -- Andrew Wyeth said of this painting, "When Karl brought the young bull out for me, I painted him on the spot. He was symbolic of so much of what went on at the Kuerner farm, the cattle and the house and the hills -- tans and whites .. the golden hill rising up behind, the house on the left, and the window where Anna was. I could hear her shouting, and every time she did the bull's ears would flicker and twist, and suddenly I could see that pink of the inside of his ear. I'd bought this long, scroll-like piece of paper. I started with the house and got interested in the bull's head, and the rest kind of flowed out from there. I kept on unrolling the paper and the painting happened naturally. I was amused to be there by the road, in the country, just unrolling this scroll and getting it down. It has a different sense of movement because of that scroll."

Cooling Shed, 1953 -- In my imagination, Wyeth said, the centuries-old milk-cooling shed at the Wylie farm in Chadds Ford was a wondrous house of cards, the kind he had built as a child. The broad boards had shifted over time and come to rest at strange angles. Wyeth recalled that within the cool interior, he could imagine a medieval cell, with the battered pails, in their sheen and by their sound, suggesting knights' helmets. It was just a modest structure in truth, but in Wyeth's estimation, it might be a hallowed setting from the tales of Robin Hood, which he enacted as a boy and read in the book vividly illustrated by his father, N.C. Wyeth.

Monologue, 1965 -- Wyeth was mesmerized by Willard Snowden's eloquence and his mellifluous voice. Long monologues naturally rolled out of Willard when he posed. He would settle into a comfortable chair in the studio and just proceed to expound in professorial tones. Snowden had been a World War II veteran and a one-time merchant seaman. For Wyeth, painting Willard was a journey into other worlds.

The Drifter, 1964 -- Andrew said, "The first drawings for this portrait were quite different. Then one day Willard became interested in looking down and watching me draw. It was as simple as that."

Spring Fed, 1967 -- Andrew Wyeth recalled, "One day I became conscious of the sound of running, trickling water -- nature pouring itself out. The painting that emerged is about the clang of the bucket, the crunch of hooves, the spilling of water. My sister Carolyn said that the basin looked like a sarcophagus. Yes. And that shining bucket's the helmet of a knight who's in that grave. Deep down, of course, the painting is not about farming ... It's about the brutality and the delicacy of life on the farm symbolized by that thin tin cup, that crooked faucet ... I've drunk that water many times; it's the most delicious water. The way it comes over the ledge of the great trough and runs down the side is timeless. It's like life itself, endlessly moving.

Raccoon, 1958 -- Before the Chadds Ford Mill House was purchased by Betsy Wyeth, the previous occupant was known to keep his coon dogs tethered outside and starving. Wyeth was artistically drawn to the old grain mill, its structure

and its ruinous condition. Betsy bought the property as a gift to Andrew, hoping it would serve as his studio.

Frog Hunters in the Brandywine Valley, 1941. Early in his career, Andrew thought of following his father into illustration. Here the unusual composition is aided by a rapid change in scale, from the large skunk cabbage plants in the foreground to the small figures jigging for frogs in the background. But Andrew's new wife Betsy, married in 1940, did not want her artist husband engaged in that kind of "bread and butter" work.

The Ides of March, 1974 -- Here pictured is the hearth of Wyeth's Chadds Ford Mill House and his dog. But its not that at all. Wyeth, a fan of the film maker Ingmar Bergman, paints another kind of reality. The Ides of March was the date of Julius Ceasar's death. Here, the fireplace tools look like spears and the ring of hooks, Ceasar's crown. The empty fireplace is cold, symbolizing Ceasar's tomb, and the dog, the tomb's guard.

Sparks, 2001 (pictured below) -- Here is a room in the18th century Chadds Ford Mill House, but the hearth is not welcoming. The large candlestick to the left looms over the hearth like a sentinel. The mirror, top right, reflects a Wyeth painting entitled Wolf Moon, suggesting one is entering an alternate reality. And the fireplace itself looks like the gates of hell. The painting purposefully is upsetting, and portrays a sense of doom and death.

Christina Olson ... In Maine, Andrew's favored model was Christina Olson. After his father's death, Andrew Wyeth began to consider Christina as the subject of some of his paintings. Wyeth's future wife Betsy James introduced Christina to Andrew. At the time, Andrew, Betsy nor Christina knew how she would figure in Andrew's art. But for Andrew, Christina was interesting. She had lost the use of her legs at an early age, and was cared for by her selfless brother, Alvaro. Andrew saw the strength in Christina, the will to endure in spite of her limitations. For Andrew, Christina was like the coast of Maine, and the weather beaten Olson house, emblems of survival.

Christina died in January of 1968. Wyeth had painted her in most of the rooms of the Olson house, her entire world. Wyeth recognized her attachment to her surroundings for he shared such an attachment with his own home.

Anna Christina, 1947 -- This is Wyeth's last portrait of Christina; she died a few months later. The trusting relationship between Christina and Wyeth is evident. She seems to be confronting the artist and the viewer with honesty and respect, with a piercing glare. Wyeth described Christina this way, "A powerful face with a great deal of fortitude. The quality of a Medici head."

Oil Lamp, 1945 -- The figure in this painting is Christina Olson's brother, Alvaro. He was the first of the Olson family to sit for a Wyeth painting. Alvaro had given up his independence as a fisherman to care for his arthritic father and then to care for Christina. In this composition, he seems barricaded in the kitchen while having thoughts of faraway events, perhaps the impending American invasion of Japan occurring at that time.

Christina Olson, (Back Door Porch), 1947 -- Wyeth recalls the day in 1947, "One day I came in and saw Christina on the back door step in the late afternoon. She had finished all her work in the kitchen and there she was sitting quietly, with a far-off look to the sea. At the time, I thought she looked like a wounded seagull with her bony arms, slightly long hair back over her shoulder, and strange shadows of her cast on the side of the weathered door, which had this white porcelain knob on it."

how they shine and don't shine. Its like all sorts of armor. ... It was at that time that the house was deteriorating very quickly. Window panes were dropping out and there were terrific drafts in it."

The Sauna, 1968 (with Siri Erickson) -- Andrew met Siri Erickson early in 1968. It might seem a sudden change to go from painting Christina Olson to Siri Erickson, but for Wyeth, it seemed quite natural. He set aside a focus on death, and said of Siri, "I've found something else that excites me. His first nude of Siri was in her family's old Finnish sauna.

Helga Testorf ... Even as Betsy spoke, back in Chadds Ford, Andrew was already painting his next model in secret, Helga Testorf, this time more dramatically, a more wholly erotic art. These paintings, done over a thirteen year period, were a total secret, kept from both Betsy Wyeth and Helga's husband, John.

At first, Helga's posing was done upstairs in the Kuerner house where she kept close to her duties tending to the needs of Karl Kuerner, dying of leukemia. She had never modeled before, but was quite comfortable posing for long hours. Wyeth panted her within deliberate limitations, unsmiling and passive, yet was able to capture subtle qualities of mood and character.

When finally made public, critics were not pleased. John Russell said

the show was "an absurd error," while Jack Flam called it "an essentially tasteless endeavor." As Wyeth approached the occasion of his 90th birthday, he was asked if Helga was going to be present. He responded, "Yeah, certainly. Oh, absolutely," and went on to say, "She's part of the family now. I know it shocks everyone. That's what I love about it. It really shocks 'em."

Braids, 1977 -- Betsy Wyeth often pointed out that Andrew Wyeth's models were playing a part in a script. Each of his Helga paintings seems different because she is fullfilling a different role in each. Braids is an accurate portrail of Helga, something Andrew wanted to get down for the record. Yet, her realistic depiction still allows for Wyeth to create an American Mona Lisa, a woman who seems innocent, while at other times a provocative woman, at ease with the intimacy of having her face caressed by an obsessive, possessive artist.

Lovers, 1981 -- A frozen instant in time, but a moment which lasts an eternity. "That's what I'm after," said Andrew Wyeth. A dry leaf flies into the open window, but it's late fall or early winter, the barren trees outside, the cold penetrating the dark room. The secret of Andrew and Helga was strained at this time, and he wanted to preserve the moment.

Dodges Ridge, 1946 -- Andrew's father N.C. Wyeth's car was hit by a train in October of 1945 in Chadds Ford. Of that time, Andrew later wrote, "I saw the country even more simplified and somber in quality." Andrew carried

his grief to Maine, and here painted a coastal farmer's wind-riven scarecrow, suggesting a long-forgotten grave.

Pentecost, 1989 -- "Once on Allen Island [in Maine] in early morning light there were fishnets hung to dry -- a whole feeling of shrouds -- a fateful quality, eerie feeling of a phantom -- the veil that Mad Marian wore. While I painted, I thought of Mad Marian, a young girl of Maine who fell in this roaring spout where the surf came in and out. It caught her and dragged her in. They couldn't save her, and she floated down past Allen Island to Pemaquid, and they picked up her body eight days later ... still draped in a long skirt. I kept thinking of that girl's body floating under water. The nets became her spirit. The nets were like fog. One was made of synthetic nylon and had a blueish cast. I tried doing it with a brush, but couldn't get the fineness, that strange cold blue. So I went to a very sharp pencil, scoring into gesso."

Night Sleeper, 1979 -- Here, Wyeth's dog Nell Gwyn sleeps on a window seat. Later, Wyeth said the painting was an extension of his studies of Helga asleep. It is speculated that the dog's name, Nell Gwyn, secretly amused Weyth as his dog was named after Nell Gwyn, a mistress of Charles II. In the background of the right window, a train can be seen rolling out of the Brandywine Valley. At the time, Betsy had been feeling her husband slip away. In retrospect, she said of her relationship with Andrew during the Helga years, "the close relationship vanished, ever so slowly, vanished."

North Light, 1984 -- Here is Andrew Wyeth's painting of the north side of N.C. Wyeth's studio. He had built this studio with earnings from his first commission in 1911 for illustrations from Treasure Island. After N.C. Wyeth's death in 1945, the family maintained the studio as a shrine to his memory.

The Carry, 2003 -- Andrew Wyeth was 86 when he painted this. The river's torrent and cascade symbolic of life's voyage and the quickening of one's days as the end draws nigh.

Goodbye, 2008 -- Wyeth said goodbye to art and life with this painting -- titled by Betsy Wyeth. He had just completed it in the autumn of 2008 when he suffered a fall that not long after would end his life. The scene is of an old sail loft that Betsy had reconstructed on one of the small Maine islands she had purchased and populated here and there with historic structures for her family's summertime use. The beautiful building had been her surprise Christmas present to her husband.

To the right, Charles Osgood travels to Benner Island, off the coast of Maine, for an Emmy Award-winning interview with painter Andrew Wyeth on his 80th birthday. Originally broadcast July 13, 1997.

Growing up on Italy's west coast in Livorno, Italy, elements of his Sephardic Jewish heritage mixed with his experience with a host of childhood diseases helped form his rebelliousness. He studied art in Florence and Venice.

As a 19 year old art student in Venice, he embraced a reckless lifestyle in a rebellious denial of the limitations of his ill health. These habits persisted until his death.

The Tate's Modigliani exhibition is the most comprehensive of the artist's work ever held in the U.K., showing over 100 of the artist's paintings and sculptures.

Modigliani arrived in Paris in 1906 when he was 22 and he died 14 years later at age 36. It was a period of extraordinary creative output. His declining health was accelerated by wild living.

Well lubricated with generous doses alcohol and drugs, he sought out a wide circle of like minded artistic friends. His exceptional good looks attracted much female attention. He freely engaged in many love affairs, and found emotional release for his friends and lovers through his art, often enticing them to serve as his models.

Modigliani refused to allow himself to be defined. He is known for his unique portraits and nudes done in a modern style with elongated faces and figures. He was not well received during his lifetime, but did achieve acceptance and admiration among artist friends such as Pablo Picasso, Constantin Brancusi, Chaim Soutine, Diego Rivera, and Juan Gris and his art dealer, Paul Guillaume.

French poet and art critic Andres Salmon commented after Modigliani's death in 1920 that Modigliani's artistic genius was magnified by his use of hashish and absinthe, commenting that when he was sober, his artistic endeavors were mediocre.

Art historians have since discounted Salmon's suggestion, countering that Modigliani would have achieved far greater artistic heights had he not been drowned and destroyed by his self indulgent excesses. Consider that Modigliani's good friend Picasso lived to the age of 92 and his long and diverse artistic career.

Today, Modigliani's paintings are some of the most highly recognized and best loved of the twentieth century.

The Tate Modern's exhibition includes 12 nudes, the largest group ever displayed in the U.K. When first shown in 1917, the exhibition was closed on its opening day on grounds the paintings were indecent. The exhibition was later reopened after some of the more offensive paintings were removed from the gallery's street window.

The Tate Modern's exhibition also includes some of his radical sculptures and portraits of friends and lovers. Of special interest are several portraits of Jeanne Hebuterne.

Traveling Conversations is an exhibition of three watercolor painters, Elaine Frenett, Jean Warren and Floy Zitten. The exhibition includes watercolor paintings and unique pictorial journals. NOW SHOWING ... Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Gallery III. Opening night reception, Fri, Jan 5, 6:00 PM. http://www.jeanwarren.com ... "Traveling Sketchbook ws conceived to bridge the geographical distance between three artist friends. We wanted to see if three artist friends could communicate through images only."

Newly published Biography of Milford Zornes
Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery friends Maria (Milford Zornes' daughter) and Hal Baker announce the release of a new biography of Milford Zornes, Warm Color in the Shade. Learn of Milford's fascinating life and travels, with anecdotes of conversations he had along the way. Here's the link to order.
Purchase Warm Color in the Shade online
Milford Zornes Website | our gallery's Milford Zornes page

Linda Sorensen's paintings currently showing:

Bodega Landmark Gallery Collection,
located inland in the town of Bodega, west end of town a half block from the Casino, and just across from the General Store and the Bodega Volunteer Fire Department.

Corrick's "Art Trails Gallery,"
located in downtown Santa Rosa on 4th Street, just steps from Santa Rosa's newly reopened town Square.

Linda Sorensen presently rents an artist's cabin/studio, located in Monte Rio, overlooking Dutch Bill Creek among redwoods -- near the Russian River.

She reports plenty of company from the mallards and mergansers on the Creek. This was the location for her Art Trails Open Studio 2017.

Bentonville, AR
Crystal Bridges
Museum of American Art