Wayne Thiebaud
Wayne Thiebaud is an american “pop” artist whose best known for his thickly painted canvases which often depict classic american treats and everyday objects. I chose Thiebaud as a subject for this blog post because I admire his skills as a painter and his somewhat unique choice of subject matter. I really love the way he is able to capture light and create a consistent mood throughout his work and how it makes me think of simpler times.
Oil on panel, c. 2002
During highschool he apprenticed at Walt Disney Studios and continued to work as an illustrator after high school. During the late 50’s he started to paint a small series of works based on food displayed in storefront windows but mainly focused on the colour and “basic shapes” of the subject. Wayne Thiebaud is often mislabeled as a pop artist because of his choice of subject, consumer goods and mass culture, which was usually claimed by the pop art movement.
Unlike most other pop artists of the time Thiebaud worked strictly from life which is what separates him from the pop movement, he truly belongs with the abstract expressionists and the Bay Area figurative movement. In addition to painting baked goods he was also known to paint landscapes, diner food scenes, and occasionally people he knew. His work also reminds me of Edward Hopper’s painting Nighthawks.
