Andrew Wyeth has been a consistent inspiration for me in my painting. I find myself going back to images of his works whenever I am beginning a new painting. Having known his work since I was a little girl, his paintings are also a source of comfort to me. He seems to be a pretty private character despite the fame of his work, and this site is the only one that is officially authorized by him.
I would describe Andrew Wyeth's work as a collection of intricately crafted paintings of rather simple subject matter: landscapes, intimate portraits, windows, doorways, and much more. It doesn't surprise me, therefore, that this website is simple and straightforward in both it's construction and aesthetics.
The homepage features Wyeth's name centered at the top of the page, in a large all-caps serif typeface. A black bar serves as the background for the name, and allows the name the stand out even more. The background of the rest of the page is a flat, neutral grey. Under the name, there is a large image of one of Wyeth's paintings called 'Stop', featuring a motorcyclist at a traffic light. The name of the piece is in a darker grey than the background under the image, along with a brief welcome message. The simplicity of this construction means that it's not necessary to have the primary navigation directly underneath the name of the site. In this case, the primary navigation is at the bottom of the page, arranged horizontally within a narrow green bar that is the same green as the large "ANDREW WYETH" at the top of the page. This green, which is sort of a deep sage, is pretty and stands out from the grey and black of the page's background, but the problem I have with it is that it really does not bear any similarity to the subtle greens that Wyeth so often uses in his paintings. I have never seen this bright sage green in any of his works. I think that a more subtle, muted green drawn from his paintings would have been just as effective in terms of highlighting the site name and primary navigation.
The primary navigation links are in a large, black sans-serif with underlines. I think that the same serif font of the large "ANDREW WYETH" at the top would have looked better. Plus, the underlines just don't look good. The size of the links is appropriate, though. Very easy to find and distinguish. However, there are no rollover or selected states which makes it hard to know exactly where you are in the site at any given time, especially since the individual pages don't feature a title (for example, clicking on "Permissions" in the primary navigation takes you to a page with instructions for obtaining permissions to create reproductions of Wyeth's work, etc., but the "Permissions" link in the primary navigation is not highlighted in any way, nor is there a title that says "Permissions" on the page).
Users can navigate back to the homepage by clicking "Home" in the primary navigation (which remains consistent on all of the pages except "Images" and "Carolyn Wyeth", which only have a "Home" link, not the rest of the primary navigation). On some pages, clicking the large "ANDREW WYETH" at the top will take you back home, but it's not consistent, which seems to be a programming flaw. In fact, on the "Images" page, the "ANDREW WYETH" is not green, but grey.
The links in the primary navigation are very easy to understand, and they lead to exactly what I expected. The information is well organized, but in some cases, it is rather exhausting to read through. For example, clicking on "Publications" takes you a long list of publications. They are separated into categories: Exhibition Catalogues, Books, Periodicals, and Television & Film. However, I think that the typography and layout of this long list can be altered to make it much easier to read. For example, I would make the titles of the publications in a different color that stands out, like red. The rest of the information can remain black as it is now.
Other inconsistencies in the site include the primary navigation, in which the link for "Carolyn Wyeth" appears and dissapears between pages. (The link leads to a page about Andrew's sister, and a request for information and images of her work for a book that is being compiled.) On the homepage and the "Images" page, the body text is dark gray, whereas it's black on all the other pages. I think that the site would seem much more sophisticated if these inconsistencies were resolved. In summary, however, this site is clear and relatively easy to navigate. If I could improve it, I would choose colors that occur in Andrews paintings. I would also, for the sake of convenience, move the primary navigation to the top of the page, under the title, so that, in the case of small browser windows, it would be immediately visible.
www.andrewwyeth.com
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