Inside Northside Magazine

"Photographic" Painter

by: Jamey Landry

I thought it was a photograph when I first saw it. Instead, it was a painting of a young woman wearing a carnival mask. A single light source from above illuminated each individual strand of the long blonde hair cascading off the woman’s shoulders. It was only after my interview with this issue’s cover artist, Patricia Whitty, that I learned that what appeared to be a photo was actually one of her paintings—a super-realistic painting.

Although she now describes herself as a photo realist, Patty explains that she didn’t always paint this way. A painter since adolescence, she studied art in high school, as well as at the venerable John McCrady Art School in the French Quarter. Later, she pursued a bachelor’s in fine art at Newcomb College and her master’s at Washington University. Patty’s road to realism first took a turn toward the abstract.

“When I was in school, abstraction was mainstream,” Patty recalls. “The teachers didn’t seem to want to interfere too much; they wanted to let you find your own way of expressing yourself. But if you were interested in realism, you had to teach yourself.”

The Slidell artist says she has always had an affinity for the early realistic paintings by masters such as Van Ikyes and Rembrandt, among others. She explains how she longed to emulate their works, but found it difficult to receive instruction on the processes and techniques involved. For Patty, the situation was only exacerbated at Newcomb.

“I was very confused at Newcomb, because they were teaching expressionism and abstraction at that time. I couldn’t see how those styles related to the beautiful paintings that I loved and wanted to make—the realistic ones. Eventually, I got with the program, so to speak, and began doing De Kooning-style paintings. I really embraced the abstract style.”

Patty became a part of the abstract movement because she felt she’d be left out altogether if she didn’t follow that trend. She painted abstracts with all of the enthusiasm that a true realist-at-heart could paint. While she was in graduate school, however, she became aware of James Rosenquist, a mid-20th century painter who is renowned for the very large-scale realistic paintings that stemmed from his early career as a billboard illustrator. Rosenquist is credited by many as having “kick started” the modern realist movement.

Encouraged by the works and success of Rosenquist and other super-realistic painters, including Jan Vermeer, J.D. Ingress and Church Chase, Patty pursued her desire to literally and figuratively paint what she sees. “I’ve never looked back,” Patty says of her deliverance through realism.

Today, Patty paints mostly still lifes and some select portrait work on commission. Touring her studio, she showed me why she prefers to paint exclusively with oils on imported Dutch linen, explaining that the oils give her more time to replicate the visual effects she sees in her subjects. “The infinite ways to put oil on and manipulate it is endlessly fascinating to me,” she notes.

From concept to canvas, the process is painstaking. Working in her studio, Patty begins a still life with a photography session, carefully choosing and positioning each element of the composition. After photographing the still life from different angles and with different light sources, she selects the best photograph of the series and begins the painting. It may take up to six months to create a single painting, so good photography is essential. Often it is the only way to preserve the subject long enough to complete the painting. “They don’t make fresh fruits that are still good to go after six months!” Patty says playfully.

As we were about to conclude our interview, Patty showed me some of the work on display around her home. In the living room was the aforementioned painting of the young woman in the Mardi Gras mask. The detail was incredible—even more so up close. Patty proudly proclaimed with a mother’s joy that it was a painting of her daughter.

Nearby was what looked to be a late-19th century portrait of an older gentleman with long whiskers and an interesting—if not stern—face. I asked who the subject was. Patty replied that it was a portrait of her great-grandfather, Charles Woodward Hutson, done by an art student at Newcomb College. Although he didn’t begin to paint until he was 65, Hutson was an accomplished artist and had a following in his later years, painting until his death in 1936 at age 95. Patty says that, although he died decades before she was born, his paintings are an inspiration for her work. His style was not realism, as you might expect, but more impressionistic.

I asked if she herself had ever done his portrait. She said no, she hadn’t, even though she has several excellent photographs of him. I suggested that if she did one of her super-realistic portraits of him, it could potentially be the most important one ever made, having been painted by a family member who was also an accomplished artist. Patty looked away and studied the portrait again, apparently imagining what her version would look like. She said, “You may be right!”

Does this mean I might just have commissioned my first painting?

Patty’s work can be viewed online at www.patriciawhitty.com or you may contact the artist at (985) 847-0317.