Rockwell-style paintings by Derek Mueller | Washington State Magazine

Derek Mueller The American Legion Magazine cover artwork — Cover artwork to honor Father’s Day for *The American Legion Magazine*

Derek Mueller Piedmont Post Boy Scout artwork — Artwork commemorating the Boy Scouts and their participation in the Piedmont, Calif., 2009 Fourth of July parade for the *Piedmont Post*

Farm Family by Derek Muller, oil painting — *Farm Family* by Derek Mueller. Oil painting presented in a show by the Society of Illustrators in NYC.

Piedmont Scout Council artwork by Derek Mueller — Artwork celebrating 100 years of scouting in Piedmont, Calif., for the Piedmont Scout Council

In 1985 Derek Mueller was given a personal tour of Norman Rockwell’s home and studio by the curator of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge and recounts his visit and impressions here:

“Visiting Norman Rockwell’s Last Studio”

In 1985, I traveled to Stockbridge, Massachusetts to see the Norman Rockwell Museum, then located at the Old Corner House. I was carrying a portfolio of some of my own original works, and included some studies I had done of Rockwell’s paintings. The museum curator seemed impressed and decided to take me on a little tour. We drove to the other end of town, not a far distance, and turned into a driveway. I immediately recognized Norman Rockwell’s home and studio. Rockwell had passed away in 1978 and his third wife, Molly, had passed earlier that year in 1985. The curator opened up the studio for me and I was thrilled to be able to get a close up look at his easel and chair, complete with palette and brushes, just as he had left them. I was amazed at Rockwell’s art book collection, including the works of a wide variety of fine artists, including Van Gogh and Picasso. I recalled seeing the Maxfield Parrish painting of an artist at his easel on the wall, possibly an original. I also had a glimpse at Rockwell’s back room, where he had his projector. Clearly, he had been traveling and collecting artifacts and these were also on display, specifically some African masks and small sculptures.

The next surprise I received was when the curator and I entered the Rockwell home, a few steps from the studio. As I remember it was a traditional American Colonial, inside and out. I felt privileged to be able to walk through his living room, dining room and kitchen. I did not notice any Rockwell originals hanging on the walls, upstairs or downstairs, but I did notice an original Howard Pyle and also a work by Thomas Fogarty, one of Rockwell’s teachers.

—Derek Mueller, illustrator

Additional information from the Norman Rockwell Museum

Rockwell occupied some 20 studios during his life, but it was the last one he called his “best studio yet.” The building was originally located in the backyard of his home on South Street in Stockbridge, Mass. In 1976, toward the end of his life, Rockwell left the studio and its contents to Norman Rockwell Museum. When the property was sold, the building was cut in two and moved to the museum’s grounds in 1986.

NRM has long presented the studio as it was when Rockwell passed away. Recently, we have turned back the clock to an earlier, active period in his career: October 1960, when he was hard at work on his painting, Golden Rule, which would later appear on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. This is the special glimpse you will have into Rockwell’s surroundings, working process, and sources of artistic inspiration…they are just as they were in 1960 when you visit the his studio at the Norman Rockwell Museum.