Signing books on Wyeth
Helen Sipala first met Andy Wyeth one morning when she and her late husband George woke up to find a stranger on their Chadds Ford property painting. That meeting led to a 20-year friendship and a book of memoirs.
Sipala was on hand at Barbara Moore Fine Art Gallery in The Barn Shops signing copies of her book, “Beyond the MARRIAGE Bed: My Years as Friend, Model and Confidante of Andrew Wyeth.”
Sipala said the book was a 20-year project, “from the day we met until he died.” They met after the Sipala’s bought Painters Folly in 1989 and stayed friends until the artist died in 2009.
Over the years, Helen Sipala has told various stories about the friendship, the thoughts and laughs shared, and many are in the book. But Helen Sipala said there is one that’s most memorable.
“He told me his greatest fear was that his son [Jamie] would surpass him as an artist.” But she added that his father, N.C. Wyeth had the same type of fear that Andy would surpass him.
Over the years, she said, as the friends talked with Andy telling stories, he would often say that he hoped Helen was writing things down. She did, and that’s how the book came into being.
As the dedication of the book reads: “Yes Andy, I did write it down just as you ‘hoped’ I would. I think you would be proud that the world now knows the REAL Andy: sensitive, generous, compassionate, comical, humble, and a true gentleman!”
“Beyond the MARRIAGE Bed: My Years as Friend, Model and Confidante of Andrew Wyeth” is available at Barbara Moore Fine Art Gallery, selling for $29.95. It’s also available through Regent Press, http://www.regentpress.net/, and other social media book sites.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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