William Whitaker | Academic painter

The only son of an artist father, William Whitaker (1943-2018), American painter, grew up in the special world of the working artist.

He had access to the finest art materials and was painting in watercolor and oil at the age of six.

His fondest early memories are of the sights sounds and smells of the art studio.

Whitaker loves to paint from life in an old fashioned studio. No matter what direction his art takes him, he always comes back to the model in the studio, the form bathed in the beautiful quiet cool light coming down from a high north window.

He refers to this kind of seeing and painting as the Old Testament of art and feels there is enough magic to engage him there for the rest of his life.

He believes the value of painting is to be found in its spiritual power.

Having been told all his life that the kind of painting he enjoys is dead, he takes quiet comfort in lovingly attempting to capture something the camera cannot see.

The art world of his childhood and youth was the brave new world of abstract expressionism and until he was well out of college his natural inclination to draw accurately and his love for traditional realism was a source of inner conflict.

Nevertheless he was fortunate, starting at age 17, to receive a thorough grounding in academic figure drawing and painting from the portrait painter Alvin Gittins at the University of Utah, and after exploring other styles he followed his heart into traditional art.

He is also delighted that there are so many wonderfully talented young artists who are not bound or inhibited by contemporary art world conventions and who are out to paint beautifully crafted pictures without apology.

He has been a professional artist since 1965, during which time he has conducted workshops and been a university art professor.

He continues to work with one or two advanced student artists for fun. He paints about three or four hours every day and spends the rest of the time trying not to ruin any good work he's done. | Claire Peterson

At the annual 'Spring Salon' in 2012 at the Springville Museum of Art Whitaker received an Award of Merit for his work, Finder.

William Whitaker passed away on the 6th of March 2018.

The world lost a great man and artist with his passing.

L'Artista Americano William Whitaker è cresciuto nel mondo artistico delle botteghe d'arte. Per questo ha avuto accesso ai migliori materiali artistici e dipinge ad acquerello e ad olio dall'età di sei anni.

Nell'infanzia e nella giovinezza sperimentò l'espressionismo astratto.

In seguito prese il sopravvento la sua naturale inclinazione per disegnare con precisione e il suo amore per il realismo tradizionale.

A partire da 17 anni riceve una preparazione approfondita in figura accademica di disegno e pittura dal ritrattista Alvin Gittins presso l'Università dello Utah, e dopo aver esplorato altri stili ha seguito il suo cuore in arte tradizionale.

Whitaker amava dipingere dal vero in un vecchio studio di stile.

Non importava quale direzione la sua arte lo porta, lui tornava sempre il modello in studio, la forma immersa nella bella luce fredda calma che scende da una finestra in alto a nord.

Egli ritiene che il valore del dipinto è da ricercarsi nella sua potenza spirituale: il suo è il tentativo di catturare qualcosa che la macchina fotografica non può vedere.

E 'stato un artista professionista dal 1965, durante i quali egli ha condotto seminari ed è stato professore universitario d' arte....