artist profile
DAWN WHITELAW
The Benefits of Painting Varied Subjects in Nature
About 25 years ago, this Tennessee artist asked how to become a better portrait painter and was advised to paint plein air landscapes. “That didn’t make any sense,” she says, “until I discovered how much plein air painting improved my skills of perception, analysis, and execution”
I
t may seem that the skills required to capture a likeness in portraiture are completely different than those necessary for painting a waterfall, sunset, or desert. After all, a commissioned portrait has to be an exact representation of the sitter, whereas a landscape can be a distortion of the space, light, color, and forms in nature. No one knows when a painted tree is shorter or wider than the real thing, but everyone can tell when “something is wrong with the mouth,” as John Singer Sargent lamented. So why did the celebrated artist Everett Raymond Kinstler advise Dawn Whitelaw to go outside and paint landscapes when she asked for advice about becoming a better portrait painter? That’s the question she asked herself, and when she couldn’t come up with a satisfactory answer, she disregarded the advice. “That was about 25 years ago, when I was painting commissioned portraits,” the Tennessee artist remembers. “The idea that I might become a better portrait painter by going outside and contending with the heat, bugs, and changing light just didn’t make sense. But a few years later, a student asked me the same question, and I knew she just needed to get better at using the paint to accurately record what she saw and felt — no matter what the subject — so I passed on the same advice that Kinstler gave me.” The student accepted Whitelaw’s advice, but asked if the two of them might schedule a plein air painting trip together, since she didn’t have a car. “I agreed to help her and made my first serious foray outdoors to paint,” Whitelaw remembers. “I assumed it would be easy to take my oil 50
August-September 2012 / www.pleinairmagazine.com
Sunday Psalm 2011, oil, 12 x 12 in. Courtesy Leipers Creek Gallery, Franklin, TN Plein air
Ashore 2012, oil, 9 x 14 in. Courtesy Richland Fine Art, Nashville, TN Plein air
Dawn Whitelaw painting on location
In Thought 2011, oil, 16 x 20 in. Courtesy Richland Fine Art, Nashville, TN Plein air www.pleinairmagazine.com / August-September 2012
51
artist profile Airlie Gardens 2012, oil, 40 x 32 in. Private collection Studio
so too did my skills and confidence about portrait painting. All the things that were making me a better plein air painter — the ability to visualize a painting before I picked up a brush, the understanding of value relationships, the benefits of making the most of every brush stroke, and the merits of working quickly and purposefully — all supported what I was doing as a portrait painter, whether I was working from a live model or a photograph.” Since those early ventures into the landscape, Whitelaw has become one of the most successful portrait and landscape painters in the country. She normally accepts a dozen commissions for portraits every year, teaches workshops in both landscape and figure painting, exhibits with commercial galleries, and travels to participate in one or two plein air events a year. “I like the variety of these different painting activities, and that keeps me looking forward to every new day,” she says. “In fact, I begin to sense that my portrait work is suffering if I don’t get out of my studio and paint landscapes, and, conversely, I feel more confident about my portraits when they have a similar feel to my plein air landscapes. That is, when there is a seamless connection between my thought process, painting procedures, and style of expression in the landscapes and figure paintings, the better they all look to me.” Whitelaw does draw a distinction between plein air paintings she creates solely for the purpose of gathering information and those she refines for exhibitions. “As every plein air painter knows, one has to work a bit larger and bring a painting to a higher level of resolution
paints from the studio out into the landscape. I suddenly realized how much of a challenge it is to paint directly from nature, and how many benefits there can be to that process. There I was, making decisions about what to paint, how to adjust my palette and procedures, and how to capture the appearance of a subject in changing light. I realized that if I could tackle all those issues outdoors, I could do a better job of painting a portrait from a live model, especially if I had the person pose outdoors.” 52
Natural Commitment Once Whitelaw understood why Kinstler had advised her to paint outdoors, she committed herself to doing so on a regular basis. “I did a lot of paintings after that, many of which were really bad,” she confesses. “I enjoyed every aspect of the process. I loved being outdoors, discovering new places to paint, joining other artists, focusing on nothing else but the painting process, and making improvements in my painting process. As my enjoyment increased,
August-September 2012 / www.pleinairmagazine.com
ARTIST DATA NAME: Dawn Whitelaw BIRTHDATE: 1945 LOCATION: Studio in Franklin, TN INFLUENCES: Joaquin Sorolla, John Singer Sargent, Everett Raymond Kinstler, members of the Cumberland Society of Painters, and numerous other contemporary colleagues WEBSITE: www.dawnwhitelaw.com
when it is going to be framed and entered into a juried competition,” she says. “If I’m just gathering information, I prefer to work small and stop when I have recorded the essential information about the light, values, patterns, or colors. I might use several of those quick studies as the basis of a larger studio painting, or I might just use them to try out different approaches to painting. “I work on both small and large canvases outdoors, sometimes returning to the same spots to create new responses to the locations. Once I get involved in a big painting, I forget about the scale and approach it much the way I would a smaller piece. I’ve even tackled big paintings during timed quick draw events because it can be exciting to face that kind of challenge. In many ways, it can be harder to paint a 6 x 6-inch painting than one that is 24 x 24 because everything has to read well right up against the surface of the painting, whereas a bigger painting with bold brushwork can have an image that coalesces from a distance.” Whitelaw adds that she prefers working with Blue Ridge Oil Colors both outdoors Ah Spring 2011, oil, 16 x 20 in. Private collection Studio Water Weight 2012, oil, 20 x 24 in. Private collection
www.pleinairmagazine.com / August-September 2012
53
artist profile
Jetsam 2011, oil, 20 x 24 in. Private collection Studio
and in the studio because she likes the quality and flow of those paints.
Model Practice Whitelaw doesn’t limit herself to painting pure landscapes en plein air, and she often meets with other artists who hire models to paint them outdoors. “We try to meet once a month during the warm season and paint for about three hours,” she says. “It’s helpful to me as a portrait painter to spend time working with posed models outdoors because it gives me ideas about posing clients to take best advantage of the light, atmosphere, and setting. Quite often I will position the sitter so there is backlight, creating a solid, evenly lit form of the person’s face and body, but side lighting can also create some interesting patterns on a figure. I just have to be mindful of how the light might change over the course of a couple of hours when I am painting.” Although Whitelaw makes it clear she enjoys painting figures, commissioned portraits, quick 54
sketches, and more refined plein air paintings, she does deal with each of these in somewhat different manners. “Obviously, portraiture and landscape painting are not exactly the same,” Whitelaw notes. “There is a completely different set of objectives and stages of development to a commissioned portrait than a pure landscape, but the point I am trying to make is that the aesthetics are similar. I want my approach to color, form, edges, values, and brushwork to be similar enough that the paintings look like they were done by the same artist.”
Fascinating Choices “I love painting portraits because the human form is such a fascinating subject and the interaction with clients is very rewarding, especially when I can pose an individual or a family group outdoors,” Whitelaw says. “Most of my commissions are for what I call informal family portraits, as opposed to institutional portraits of judges, politicians, or corporate executives. I’m honored when I am asked to paint an institutional portrait, but my preference is for less formal portraits that allow me to get to know people and work with them in developing a painting that suggests their personalities, home
August-September 2012 / www.pleinairmagazine.com
life, interests, and individual style. And if I get the opportunity to paint people outdoors under natural light with a landscape behind them, then I can really combine my interests in plein air and portraiture.” Creating a new portrait every month may not seem like a daunting task, but clients who pay a considerable amount of money for a commissioned painting expect the artist to spend time consulting with them about the pose, dress, style, and ultimate location of the painting. “It’s important to get to know a client’s expectations as well as their gestures, expressions, and style,” Whitelaw explains. “And after I’ve consulted with them, painted sketches, and taken photographs, I like to show them a color study of what I have in mind for the portrait so I’m certain how to proceed. I prefer not to show them my photographs or a lot of different sketches because I want to guide them toward what I believe will be the best portrait I can create.” After teaching at Lipsomb University in Nashville for more than 30 years, Whitelaw continues to teach workshops and demonstrate at conventions, and she has a well-deserved reputation as an informative and empathetic painting instructor. “I start a workshop by explaining what I do and asking what the students perceive to be their needs,” she says. “My goal is to help them find their way, not for them to copy my way. I try to get them to focus on their personal vision and to stimulate a few new ideas, and at the same time I answer their questions about materials and techniques. Quite often I stay in touch with people after they have participated in a three-day class and they send me images of their recent paintings so we can continue the dialogue. Sometimes the workshops are about painting specific subjects — portraits, landscapes, or still lifes — but, as I’ve said, the critical issues about painting are really much the same for all painting subjects.” M. Stephen Doherty is Editor of PleinAir magazine.
See more of Dawn Whitelaw’s plein air and studio work in the expanded digital edition of PleinAir.
Expanded Digital Edition Content
artist profile
Steal Across the Sky 2010, oil, 18 x 32 in. Private collection Studio
Foggy Moment 2012, oil, 9 x 14 in. Courtesy Richland Fine Art, Nashville, TN Plein air www.pleinairmagazine.com / August-September 2012
Expanded Digital Edition Content
artist profile Girl in Snow 2010, oil, 48 x 56 in. Courtesy Rahr West Museum, Manitowoc, WI Studio
Warmer Park Vista 2010, oil, 9 x 14 in. Collection the artist Plein air
August-September 2012 / www.pleinairmagazine.com