Incollect Magazine - Issue 8

72 www.incollect.com He painted his monumental landscapes in watercolor initially, a tricky medium in which the artist works backward from traditional painting techniques. In watercolor, working wet on wet, the artist paints from light colors to dark because of the difficulties of overlaying light water-based paint over darker paint — it pools into a muddy mess. Sculthorpe soon moved to oil paint because, he says, “it enabled more detailed work.” When asked whether he has used acrylic paint, he answered, “Yes, but it dries too quickly, so you can lose control. Oil paint stays pliable and wet for a long time.” Sculthorpe is often compared to fellow American landscape painter Andrew Wyeth, though his work is more colorful and his subjects are varied. He met Wyeth in the early 1970s after the painter visited Sculthorpe’s first exhibition at a small gallery in Chadd’s Ford, Pa. where Wyeth lived. “Andrew and some local characters came to see my show, and then about a week later he called the gallery and asked if I would be interested in coming over and spending the day with him to talk art and drink some good bourbon. I couldn’t believe it,” Sculthorpe says. ”It was so inspiring and humbling at the same time.” Sculthorpe credits Wyeth with helping him to understand how to look at the world. “It is hard to put into words,” he says. “It was inspiring to meet him as a personality, a famous artist, but more as a man. I was already a fan of him as a painter — the work is curiously achromatic, with little introduction of color. It is also bitterly real. But his attitude really struck me. He took me for a walk around his property and showed me where he and his wife had restored an old Revolutionary War mill back to the original. He had a fabulous Peter Sculthorpe, Broad Run. Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches.