A couple of weeks ago my wife and I visited the Wharton Esherick house in Malvern, and this past Saturday visited the Experiencing Esherick exhibition at the Brandywine River Museum. Both experiences were quite inspiring, especially as someone currently in the midst of interior designing a new home and learning beginner woodworking skills to be able to enjoy too-expensive-to-buy-but-easy-to-build furniture. Plus who doesn’t love wood?

I love this museum, right off US Route 1 in Chadds Ford, PA it has panoramic glass windows with a stunning view of the Brandywine River and houses much of the Wyeth family artworks.

The Esherick exhibition was certainly the highlight, having actually climbed the iconic staircase the exhibition used in the promotional graphics in the preceding weeks it was fascinating to see the maquette for it made by Esherick and a beautiful photograph of it by Emil Luks from 1934. The commanding desk, with it’s large curved work surface and angular drawers is the ultimate envy of any artist or writer and was also a major highlight of the items on view.

Wood cut prints and paintings were sprinkled throughout and highlighted his skill in traditional fine art mediums. As Esherick was quoted as saying, he was an artist first and foremost. His art alone was quite spectacular, and he clearly brought that vision and skill to working in wood.

It inspires me to say the least, I went home and while I haven’t created anything as good as Esherick I’ve branched away from only working in photography and am currently dabbling in poetry, painting, and printmaking, along with making simple and practical items out of wood for our home. Although now I’m inspired to take it to the next level.