![]() Alfreda had a simple and direct answer: “I guess thirty-five to forty minutes. Dutifully writing down the ingredients, Whyte was baffled by measurements given as “scoops” or “dashes,” but was even more perplexed about the length of time she should cook the pie. One of the more amusing episodes recounted in the book tells how Alfreda taught the tall, thin artist how to make sweet potato pie. I am grateful to be a link that might allow these images to endure.” It’s why I paint the Gullah residents here, as I once did the Amish in the Ohio countryside. “Like so many remote cultures, this sea island is being paved over by the influences of mainstream America, and I feel a sense of urgency to capture this before it’s gone. Whyte sees one of the goals of her work as documentary. Her prose poetically conjures the places and people, while her paintings colorfully portray them. ![]() In understated paragraphs, Whyte tells how she first met the women and how she gradually gained their confidence. 4, 2004.Īn accompanying full-color publication provides a first-person narrative detailing Whyte’s interactions with the Johns Island quilting group. Following the run in Greenville, the exhibition will travel to the Hickory Museum of Art in Hickory, NC, where it will be seen from Oct. Whyte and her watercolors have recently received national recognition in a series of articles in Watercolor, American Artist, and The Artist’s Magazine.Īlfreda’s World heralds the artist’s accomplishments at mid-career and consists of twenty watercolors. Her combination of tightly controlled brushstrokes and loose, broad washes, coupled with contrasts of light and dark, produce an intensity not usually associated with watercolor. In her most recent paintings, Whyte explores the expressive potential of rich darks and the ephemeral nature of steam. She has been compared with such Southern watercolorists as Alice Ravenel Huger Smith, Hubert Shuptrine, Henry Casselli and Stephen Scott Young. ![]() Whyte works in watercolor, a medium intimately associated with Charleston, SC, and with other realist figurative artists known for their portrayals of African-Americans. It is in the same manner that artists never choose their subject matter. ![]() Rather, at some point, one discovers that he or she was already an artist all along. Reflecting upon these works, Whyte commented: “A person never decides to become an artist. Whyte has succeeded in preserving their likenesses and their communal activities for posterity in her paintings. She has witnessed the passing of some: Mariah, Emily, Elizabeth, and Myrtle, among others. Now, however, Whyte has become a participant-threading needles, serving coffee, and sharing in their joys and sorrows. Initially, Whyte was a passive observer: she had discovered the women while searching for people who would model for her paintings, and some of them were shy about allowing her to paint them. Johns Island, like many other sea islands, preserves traces of the Gullah culture that are still evident in the group’s language, music, cuisine, dress, basketry, and quilt making. Erected from timbers washed up after a shipwreck, the building dates to the years following the Civil War. They also make quilts, a longstanding tradition brought from Africa, which they sell to raise money for the church. ![]() These women, most descendants of slaves, gather at the Center each Wednesday for prayer, song, cornbread, and fellowship. Francis Senior Center on Johns Island, SC, where she discovered the women she portrays in Alfreda’s World. In 1991, as she recovered from surgery and a yearlong regimen of chemotherapy, Whyte moved to the Lowcountry in search of a deeper meaning for life. She studied at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and later married and settled nearby, operating a gallery with her husband, Smith Coleman. Mary Whyte was born in Cleveland in 1953. Severens, has also been celebrated in museum exhibitions. A biography written about Mary titled, More Than A Likeness, The Enduring Art of Mary Whyte, written by art curator and historian, Martha R. Mary teaches watercolor classes around the world and is the author of five nonfiction books published about her life, work, and artist instruction. Whyte’s works exhibiting internationally include the China and Foreign Countries International Watercolour Summit at the Nanning Art Gallery in Nanning, China, in which Mary was one of ten watercolor artists of the world invited, and The World Watermedia Exposition in Thailand. The exhibition of 50 works depicted blue-collar workers in industries vanishing throughout the south, with the exhibition traveling to museums throughout the southern United States. ![]()
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