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Artist:

Subject: “Dana”
Oil on canvas

at could be more commonplace than a painting of a pretty little girl in a white dress, seated in the sunshine? We have seen this motif a thousand times. Yet artist Dawn Whitelaw captures our attention here suddenly with a powerful work of art that lifts this gentle everyday moment into the realm of the sublime.

As the sun splashes down over flaxen hair and delicate skin tones, and reflects back into the dress with an array of warm and cool pastels, the beautiful child looks toward us with a tentative glance, the left hand and arm arrested in motion. But I used the word “power” in an earlier sentence. How can so strong a word apply to so gentle a subject? But there is singular power here – the power of authoritative and ever-so-sure drawing, the solid strength that comes from just the right relationship of tones, and the solidness of a brush technique that captures everything with a deft, bold, direct, unhesitating sureness. This is real painting by an artist who has mastered her technique and uses it with a painterly authority to capture fleeting impressions in an imperishable way.

In this painting of “Dana,” the deep purple-blue tones of the background cause the subtle palette used in the figure to sparkle with a surprising radiance. The heavy, architectural solidity of the rock wall increases, by contrast, the delicacy of the child. The genius in this painting – the master touch – is the subtle interplay of tones across the child’s face, with strong lighting on either side. Only an artist who is very sure of her powers would dare this. J.H.S.