Author Description

Irene F. Whittome was born and raised in Vancouver, where she studied at the Vancouver School of Art and was especially encouraged by painter Jack Shadbolt. Paintings and drawings from this period show her impatience with learning to reproduce the forms of life models or those from art history put forward as examples for young artists (Giotto, Picasso and so forth). The drawings are filled with a tension bordering on destruction, and the oils attest to an exuberance and a firm desire to create while criticizing the references proposed. From 1963 to 1968, thanks in part to an Emily Carr grant, Irene Whittome lived in France, drawing and printmaking at Stanley Hayter's Atelier 17. Here again, the surface of the paper, trying to contend with an excess of ink, is torn or scarified, submitting to an artist who voluntarily integrates a host of exogenous elements into the work.