I began drawing when I was nearly 3, and after finishing the sixth grade, I left school to paint and was tutored at home. My father didn't think a formal education was necessary for a painter.
From Jamie Wyeth
Art was a way of life in my family. My grandfather, N.C. Wyeth, who died a year before I was born, had been a prominent painter. So was my father, Andrew. My two aunts and two of my uncles also earned a living as painters.
Growing up in Chadds Ford, Pa., I shuttled between studio space in my parents' house and my grandfather's studio just up the hill. It was a solitary childhood, but I loved it.
My father was a great inspiration, and there was a bit of competition between us. He'd work in his studio, and I'd work in my space, but the door was always half open.
The real kiss of death - particularly with my father - is the extraordinary popularity of his work.
I had been elected to the National Academy of Design in New York, and one of the requirements was that you give a portrait, a self-portrait of yourself.
The great thing about a painter is that he or she lives on - I mean, Andrew Wyeth is more in his paintings than he was walking around.
I have continued to paint; my father - who was savaged by the critics - continued to paint until practically the last week of his life.
I learned from a longtime farmer that pigs enjoy soothing music.
I paint every day. I really have no hobbies. That's all I do.
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