First news is that this morning I will be attending a great painting demo by the still life master painter Jeff Legg. He is known for his paintings of the still life on heavily worn wood tables. It is being held in conjunction with the Oil Painters of America Western Regional exhibition at Gallery 1261 in Denver, the demo runs from 10am to noon today.
Another nationally known artists is giving a demo, Quang Ho, a past president of Oil Painters of America will be speaking from 3 to 5pm today.
Mary Whyte is a nationally acclaimed watercolor painter with many paintings, giclees, and books to her credit. Her husband and she run their own art gallery, he makes wonderful frames. The artist was born in 1953. The gallery is based out of Charleston, South Carolina.
A compilation of works by the artist. The beginning comments are in Russian, images start ten seconds into the video.
A link for the artist’s personal website: http://marywhyte.com/
Whyte has illustrated several childrens books. Great and fun drawings for the children and I highly recommend them. My favorite is snow riders, a wonderful book in which snowmen come to life! In addition the artist has illustrated other books on the Gullah people of color of the south. For art education she has books out on beginning to see the world as an artist and also a DVD working with portraits. I chose not to include the preview for the DVD as it had a political ad attached to it. Please, no more ads!
Whyte’s favorite subject matter is portraits. My favorite works of the artist are the paintings of Gullah people, these people not long ago were slaves and many have jobs that are being replaced by technology. She paints such fantastic skin tones on people of color. The artist loves to do research and this led her to do paintings of the quilting clubs that got together in their free time to gossip and quilt. Whyte does a great job with mixing in patterns of the quilts, but she DOESN’T PAINT THE ENTIRE QUILT IN FULL DETAIL. Your eye when looking at a quilt, or anything with an intricate pattern or design, the eye can only focus on one area at a time. Whyte is a master at mixing up soft and hard edges and this makes her quilts or laundry hanging on a clothes line seem very lifelike.
The artist is also great at creating atmosphere in her paintings by using very soft edges. By using these edges in clothing and flowers the viewer gets the feeling of movement. Also by letting some edges remain unfinished, the viewer can finish the painting in his or head and the image can connect to more people. Its not that a photographic like painting cannot be spectacular, I love Richard Estes for example, but the viewer doesn’t have much opportunity to QUESTION what they see, every detail is filled in.
For example compare Richard Estes to Robert Kipness to see how much shadows, lost edges, and darkness can create mood and atmosphere. I enjoy Mary Whyte for inspiration for both children and adults, for beginnig to intermediate to advanced art students, and for her kindness towards her viewing public. For skin tones of people of color this artist is up there with such masters as Dean Mitchell and Stephen Scott Young.
The artist is up there with Bev Doolittle for getting paid for her art! A large portrait painting with a background with sides 48 by 40 inches will go for $70,000 to $90,000. A smaller study without any background detail go for around $10,000.
Try painting a person of color and see if you can get as much variety of color into the skin tone as Mary Whyte, Winslow Homer, or Stephen Scott Young.
In honor of Bob Ross, please make sure to have some fun whilst you paint today!
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