“Eggs in a Sack” by Florence Thomas. Oil on canvas. 1972.
“I just tore my paper bag open, put three eggs in there, and I worked awfully hard on that. (The background is nearly the same value as the bag.) I did that for harmony, to harmonize. (The complementary color idea is very subtle.) Yes, and if you look at the Wyeth paintings, their paintings are the same way.
It’s the colors they use. Carolyn Wyeth would talk to me about painting or trying to imitate Andrew. I wasn’t trying to imitate him. I just wondered if I could do the same thing he did. I thought I could. When she looked at my paints, and my paints were bright, and when she told me what colors to use, I knew exactly how they got their mood. They used a different green from what I used, and I used theirs in this picture. You can use drab colors and get a mood- this picture has a mood to it…
…This Egg in a Sack is not a happy painting. To me it’s just a moody picture. And a lot of Andrew’s pictures are awfully moody to me. Jamie Wyeth uses a little more color than his father did. N.C. is the best of all of them, but he had to illustrate to make a living. He didn’t get to paint the things he wanted to paint. He was trying to teach Andrew to paint, and Carolyn said he told Andrew, ‘You’ll never amount to anything the way you’re painting,’ but Andrew didn’t listen, he just kept on paintings and being himself.”
-Thomas, Florence. The Art of Florence Thomas. Jefferson, NC. McFarland & Company, Inc. 2004.