Summer House, Winter House 1975

Jamie Wyeth’s “Summer House, Winter House” is a painting made with brushes and watercolour, capturing a vision of two houses facing each other across an empty landscape. I’m immediately drawn to the contrasting tones; the way Wyeth uses a limited palette to create depth and mood. The browns and blues feel muted, giving the scene a somber, almost ghostly atmosphere, like memory. Look at the brushwork on the house to the right – it's so precise, carefully layering thin washes of color to define the texture of the wood. See how the shadows are rendered, almost solid in their darkness. The blank space between the houses, that stark white sky, feels like an abyss, adding to the painting's sense of isolation. It’s a bit Hopper-esque, but with a folk-art twist. There's an ambiguity here – are these houses mirroring each other, or are they worlds apart? I think Wyeth leaves it up to us to decide.