Victoria Wyeth, the only grandchild of iconic American artist Andrew Wyeth opened up a virtual lecture to the students of the Pennfield School's upper school on Thursday with an unexpected — yet perfect — intro.

"People look at his work and say it's really boring!" she said, of the subdued colors and quiet scenes depicted in most of her grandfather's work. The next hour was spent revealing, through a fast-paced series of personal anecdotes, memories, and pointing out details and nuances of several of Wyeth's masterpieces, how his work was anything but boring.

"I always tell people, it's not about what you think, it's about what he thought," Ms. Wyeth said.

Ms. Wyeth shares the story of her grandfather from a very personal perspective. "He was so serious out in public, but he was this wonderful, sweet person."

She called him Andy. He signed off on notes to her as "Old Bones."

When Victoria was a teenager, she began working at the Farnsworth Art Museum, in Maine, becoming the first-ever docent for their Andrew Wyeth Collection. The information she shared with visitors was informed by extensive conversations with Andy about each of his works in the museum's collection.

And when she couldn't answer a visitor's question, she simply went home and asked.

"I think of my lectures as his voice – not mine," she said. "He started training me to speak on his paintings when I was a young lady (around 14 of 15 years old) and he left us when I was 29 so I had him teaching me for about 15 years.

"I do think that my lectures are unusual because they are 100 percent based on interviews I did with my grandfather and his friends (those who posed for him). I refuse to read books about my grandfather and I also don’t watch any of the documentaries on him. It’s so important to me that I stick to the facts that he taught me and don’t infuse others thoughts into my lectures."

Of the many lessons Victoria shared with the students: talk to your grandparents, and cultivate and respect relationships with family.

"The relationship that Andy and I had is so important to my lectures because those who listen to me can hear and see the love that we had for each other. Having a family member tell you about his art is quite different than having an art historian who possibly never even met him explain things to you," she said.
 It's that personal connection that makes Victoria such an important guardian of her family's artistic legacy, which includes painter and illustrator N.C. Wyeth, Victoria's great-grandfather, and uncle Jamie Wyeth, a contemporary realist painter.

Often, Victoria's devotion to family and her personal sense of loss following Andy's death in 2009, will surface at unexpected moments.

"I have burst into tears thousands of times during lectures because each time I speak it is from my heart," she shared in an email following her lecture. "I usually cry at the end when I talk about what it was like to watch him die and how helpless I felt."

The Wyeth family recently suffered another loss, as last month, Victoria's grandmother Betsy, Andrew's widow, died at the age of 98. A partner in every sense of the word, Victoria recounted how, on their very first date, Betsy brought Andy to the Olson family home in Cushing, Maine, and introduced him to Christina Olson and the location where he would eventually paint Christina's World, probably his most well-known work.

Andrew Wyeth was an acute observer of nature, and also of the seemingly mundane. Ms. Wyeth shared slides of his paintings including Monday Morning, which depicts a laundry basket with a dusting of snow and a clothespin leaning against a wall, and My Shoes, which show a pair of worn, cast off shoes sitting in a beam of sunlight. Both beautifully encapsulate how keenly Wyeth saw the world.

Wyeth, it seems, went through life with his eyes wide open. And he would share his observations with his adoring granddaughter.

"Look at that light on those shoes, he would say," said Victoria. "That's what it's like to have Andrew Wyeth as your grandfather."

It was that keen sense of observation, and serendipitous seizing-of-the-moment that created the connection that brought Ms. Wyeth to Pennfield, where Bristol resident Blayney Hayes teaches art.

"I had my students take part in the quarantine art challenge where they took a famous work of art and recreated it during quarantine with objects found at home," said Ms. Hayes. "The kids had a blast, and I kicked it off with mine as one of Andrew Wyeth’s Helga paintings.

"I posted it to Instagram and that is how I met Victoria. She commented and we started to bond about our grandfathers and what they taught us about art. After several online conversations, Ms Wyeth, who has delivered lectures on her grandfather's work all over the world, offered to speak to Ms. Hayes' students.

Covid-forced quarantine turned out to be an excellent time to teach the lessons of Andrew Wyeth.

"They focused on the people, places, things and pets that are an important part of their world — the people and places they know so well and intimately," said Ms. Hayes. "They took time to reflect on being in quarantine and how their worlds are very small yet so big.

"They learned that  Andrew Wyeth focused on the people and places in his world and they looked at and discussed his art. Wyeth’s art has given these students a jumping off point and a reason to reflect and to take stock visually."

Look closely. Listen to nature. Look up and down. All important lessons, but for Victoria, there was one that she feels was even more important.

"Be a good person," she said. "He was so famous, he had everything. But he always reminded me that you're no different than anyone else. And he taught me to believe in yourself, and what you believe in.

"He never sold out."

"I cannot express how incredibly supportive Victoria has been," said Ms. Hayes. "My students truly learned a lot about taking this time to observe the world."

Remaining open and receptive to what comes your way is a good lesson, at any time.

"My grandparents own two islands in Maine, Allen Island and Benner Island," she said. "They both used to love watching the boats go by in the summer so they would put moorings out so people could park their boat and stay as long as they wanted.

"I always wondered if people knew that my grandparents lived in the house."