ArtistsNetwork.com 23subject’s sudden entrance and asked her if she’d pose for
some additional photos, arranging to come before the
diner opened one morning. “I particularly liked the black-
board behind her and the things on the counter, which
were like an added still life,” says Whyte. “What I really
wanted was the light shape against the dark chalkboard,
and I loved the graffi ti of the writing all around her.”
Back in her studio, Whyte did a series of thumbnail
sketches to work out the design. “Originally, I thought I’d
have it open to the kitchen on the right with someone
cooking and maybe someone sitting at the counter,” she
says. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted the lights on the plate to
connect to the vertical light on the right [see Blue Plate
fi nal thumbnail, at left]. I edited out lots of stuff that was
on the counter and invented some things on the shelves,
because I needed a shape, color or value, as well as the
top of the chair in front to break the strong horizontal
line of the counter. Because I purposely used so little of
the color blue, it became the star color, doubling as a
reference for the diner’s special of the day.”
AT EASE
Subjects painted in their preferred environment usually
produce more natural portraits. “I don’t always know
what I’m looking for in a pose,” says Whyte, “but I know
it when I get an ‘Ah, that’s it’ feeling. Often, I’ll mirror
the movement I want the subject to do, moving and
positioning myself so it’s as though they’re looking in
a mirror.” In his small offi ce, Whyte engaged Philip
Simmons, renowned Charleston blacksmith, in this way,
with lively conversation about his life and family, as she
sketched him in preparation for Iron Man (below), now
in the collection of Charleston’s Gibbes Museum of Art.
Her subjects aren’t always planned, however. Whyte
asked a man she spotted on a Charleston street to model,
inspiring the painting Portal (below). “He turned out to
be a fantastic model,” she recalls. “I wanted to include his
tattoos and long hair, and because I liked the mystical air
about him, I wanted to push this feeling. We found an old
building in Charleston where dramatic light came onto
the stairwell in diagonal bands, spectacularly catchingIron Man (watercolor on paper, 39x28) Portal (watercolor on paper, 28¾ x20)