Helen Van Wyk

[Mike McCarty]

Sunday night is TV artist night on the local cable. Most of this stuff is a real pain to watch.

Finally they have brought back Helen Van Wyk. To my taste the late Ms. Wyk (died in '94) is the best of the TV artists. This ole gal could paint, and was a good teacher as she went. Last Sunday she painted carrots and this Sunday it was wine bottles wrapped in wicker.

I have her portrait book and I have seen her paint portraits on her TV series, I hope they leave her on long enough to get to the portraits.

I love the way she signs off. She says "maybe next time I'll teach you to make a delicious pea soup."

[Valerie Gudorf]

Dear Mike,

On what cable network can the Van Wyk shows be seen? I agree that Helen could definitely paint. I would be very interested in seeing these shows. Not since Bob ("Happy Tree") Ross put in regular appearances on our local PBS affiliate, have I seen a painting instruction show. I understand that there's a watercolorist - Alwyn Crenshaw, or something - who also paints regularly for PBS audiences. Here, there seems to be a discouraging apathy when it comes to art. *Sigh*

By the way, I use to live in Tulsa more than sixteen years ago, very near the Eastland Mall. Is that still there? My daughter was born at Hillcrest Medical Center. I kinda miss good ole' Tulsa!

Cheers,
Valerie

[Steven Sweeney]

I didn't have a clue as to who Helen Van Wyk was when I first picked up some of her videos in a stationery shop in Sydney almost 10 years ago. Since that time I've made hundreds of drawings and dozens of paintings and spent years in an atelier setting -- and those videos of hers still hold up, pound for pound some of the best I've seen. Many by "greater" painters gather dust, but I still watch Helen's shows periodically and learn something every time. She got the job done, based not only on aesthetic sensitivity and rigor but on a work ethic. When she said "Welcome to My Studio," you knew it wasn't time for tea, it was time to roll up your sleeves and get stuck into the business of painting. And you knew you'd have something to show for it when you left.

Mention was made of Alwyn Crawshaw, whose videos (tapes of his BBC series) came into my library about the same time. If you didn't want to draw and paint after watching a few of these programs, then law or accountancy were probably where you belonged anyway. "It's easier than you think!" he'd always assure us at the end of each program. "Why not have a go!"

The cool thing about these folks (and yes, even the much maligned Bob Ross) is that they said, "Much of that exclusive mystical stuff, that legerdemain, is nonsense. There's no reason in the world that you can't be enjoying art in your life today, no matter who or where you are, and here are a couple of ways to get started." If your interest was piqued, you could then take it as far as you wanted.

Good on them. The Van Wyks and Crawshaws, every bit as much as the Met stars, are among my art heroes.

[Mike McCarty]

Valerie,

I get these programs in Tulsa through the Rogers State College broadcasts on channel 19. This is not our PBS station. As far as I know the local PBS doesn't show any art instruction programming anymore. They go through phases. We can match apathy with the best of them.

I don't ever remember seeing Mr. Crenshaw. We get a watercolorist named Terry Madden from Florida.

Still have Hillcrest Med. center, and the Eastland mall is still here. I think it's out east somewhere.

[Holly Snyder]

Mike,

I used to watch Helen Van Wyk's show religiously, it was on once a week on PBS. This was before I really had any interest in painting. It was appealing how easy she made things. She had such a distinctive teaching style, which made her shows entertaining to watch. I learned soo much from her shows, all the basics.

Time passed, several years, in which I tried other things, then eventually summoned the courage to pick up a brush. Her books are the first I referenced when I did begin painting. I certainly owe a lot to her. I'm happy to see others who value her (and others) pioneering instruction.

By the way, congratulations on being added to the Stroke of Genius artist site.

Regards,
Holly

[Linda Brandon]

Steven,

I had to go and look up 'legerdemain'.

Best regards,
Linda

[Steven Sweeney]

I had to go and look up 'legerdemain'.

It's one of those words that, if you don't watch it closely, disappears before your very eyes. Then somebody finds a gold coin behind your ear, people clap, and the party goes on.

[Mike McCarty]

Ms. Van Wyk has an interesting way of starting her TV episodes. She picks a color, in this case it was thalo green, then smears it down the canvas. She then moves over and smears it down the canvas mixed white white and possibly another color all the time talking about the properties of this one color.

She then painted a head of lettuce using her thalo green mixtures. She had set up a still life with a perfect backdrop that was perfectly side lit. It was, after twenty minutes, stunning.

It reminds me of a couple of things, first how closely linked the portrait is to the still life and, how silly it is to say "there's just nothing to paint."

She ended by saying "a painting is a record of a series of corrections."

[Mike McCarty]

This week Ms. Van Wyk painted with the earth colors. She painted wicker over wine bottles. She stressed the "rhythm of application."

Regarding backgrounds she said "to put in the background after the fact is like putting on your bra through your shirt sleeve." I've not seen that done.

I've heard tell of gals taking their bra off through their shirt sleeve, and having it suddenly appear hanging from the rear view mirror. I think that's pretty common.

[Mike Dodson]

I like what Helen says about working from the large masses to the small, "Begin with a broom and finish with a needle!"

I never saw her needle.