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| "San Francisco, West Side Ridge" by Wayne Thiebaud 36x36 Oil |
I don't remember when I first came across the work of Wayne Thiebaud, but I am sure the encounter involved cakes or pies or maybe even ice cream cones. Thiebaud is famous for these paintings of sweet desserts. They are so thickly-painted, it is said, that they themselves often resemble cakes, each topped with an abundance of icing.
I like these paintings, but even more, I prefer his landscapes. Most people I run into, when I mention Thiebaud, remark, “Oh, the artist who painted all those pies!” They aren't familiar with his landscapes, which often present the viewer with dizzying perspectives and streets going straight up, with buildings and trees and cars perched on impossible slopes. In some ways, these paintings resemble a Diebenkorn painting, unflattened and with a little realism re-installed, and then distorted in an alarming way.
Thiebaud started off painting the landscape from life with artist Norman Hart of Long Beach, California. The first time out, Hart took him to Palm Beach to paint. But he began to prefer to sketch on-location and to save the painting for the studio. An inveterate sketcher, he once said: “I actually can’t think of any place I haven’t taken a sketchbook—hospitals, churches, ships, airplanes, even to the tennis courts.”
But clearly, something happens between Thiebaud's sketches and the finished landscape paintings. This creative “something”—a process—is what we artists need to develop for ourselves. Even if we can't put a name to it, it is a way to one's unique vision. Thiebaud noted rightly that all painting is cumulative and collaborative; yet when the artist runs the raw material of the world through this process, the result can be—should be—a brand-new thing.
Thiebaud passed away this week at 101. Till the very end, he was working in his studio. A photo I saw of him lecturing in 2018 shows what appears to be a man no more than 80 or possibly even 70—but he was 98 at the time. You can read more about him in this excellent article.
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| "Valley Farm" 16x22 Watercolor |
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| "Up Street" 24x12 Oil |
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| "Valley Farm" 11x8 Gouache |
