Education is one of the main foundations on which the Portrait Society was built. Our founders believed in the importance of sharing knowledge with fellow artists, and for 26 years, the Portrait Society has strived to continue connecting our members in this way. Along with our mentorship programs, we provide many opportunities throughout the year for our members to learn from fellow artists who freely give of their time and knowledge. Our hope is that each member will take the knowledge they have gained and pass it on to other artists.
At this year’s the Art of the Portrait Conference banquet, I had the distinct honor of presenting the Excellence in Fine Art Education Award. This award was created in 2002 to recognize and honor institutions or individuals that promote skill-based education. I am delighted that this year’s award was presented to Dawn Whitelaw in recognition of her more than 60 years of teaching as a professional artist.
I first met Dawn in 1989, 35 years ago in the art department of Lipscomb University in Nashville. She was an adjunct faculty member who left her studio each week, twice a week, to teach the fundamentals of painting, and she was my first painting instructor. I knew absolutely nothing about painting. During a still life session, Dawn asked me what color I saw in the cast shadow of an apple. I said, “shadow.” She handed me a gray card with a hole punched in the center and asked me to look at the shadow through the hole in the card. Suddenly, I saw color! This was the first of many revelations while I studied with Dawn.
Dawn Whitelaw received a standing ovation after receiving the Excellence in Art Education award, acknowledging and encouraging artists to continue to share their knowledge with others, which is an important aspect of her artistic career.
Since Dawn began her career as an artist, she has been a teacher. To her core, that is who she is—a teacher. With raw intelligence, insatiable curiosity, dedication to personal growth and great talent and skill, Dawn has been on a lifelong journey of discovery. From the start, her goal has been to become a stronger artist and to share all she’s learned with others. There is no other artist since the days of William Merritt Chase, Frank Vincent DuMond or Robert Henri who has influenced more artists or inspired more artists to become professionals. Her generosity is legendary, and her stamina is remarkable. She enjoys solving an artistic problem more than anyone I know. A few adjectives that describe her are passionate, motivated, tireless, driven, smart, dependable, professional, caring, sharing and brave.
While teaching thousands of students over the years, Dawn has also produced thousands of images that inspire us. Her portraits, interiors and still life works have won awards and sold in galleries all over the country. Of her many series, the one that offers insight into Dawn’s creativity and humor, and is one of my personal favorites, was the Men on Ladders series!
Her love of plein air painting has taken her around the world. It was on one of those painting trips that Dawn was struck by something that changed her life as an artist and a teacher. One day as she left her hotel to seek out a subject to paint, she kept struggling to find something to capture. Then it hit her: she was heading out each day to look for something to paint that she knew how to paint instead of tackling things she didn’t know how to paint. Since that day, she has pushed and pushed herself to tackle as many subjects as she possibly can. Her work strikes all the right chords that her greatest influence, Everett Raymond Kinstler, expressed to be the most important for any artist: imagination, feeling and the ability to communicate. Dawn excels in all three.
As a longtime member of the Portrait Society faculty and board of directors as well as our vice chair, Dawn has served the Society and its thousands of members with selflessness, generosity and grace.
Last, but really first, Dawn is a person of great faith. As she said to me once, she was doing what she knew God wanted her to do, and she hoped he didn’t change his mind! Our first chairman of the Portrait Society, Gordon Wetmore, once gave me a printed card with a scripture from Exodus, which I still have today. It sums up Dawn perfectly (with a slight gender edit from me): “The Lord has filled her with the Spirit of God…and knowledge to design artistic works…and He has put in her heart the ability to teach.”
Congratulations to Dawn Whitelaw for being this year’s recipient of the Excellence in Fine Art Education Award.
Sincerely,
Michael Shane Neal
Chairman
Portrait Society of America
Upcoming Events & Programs
The Portrait Society of America has several upcoming events and competitions. We invite you to participate either by attending an event or sharing your work.
Monthly Wednesday Webinars
Online monthly educational content offered live by faculty artists with question-and-answer sessions at the end of the evening.
Members Only Competition
Entry Deadline: November 4, 2024
Recognizing Portrait Society members’ artworks in five categories: Commissioned Portrait, Non-Commissioned Portrait, Outside the Box, Still Life and Animals as the Subject.
Signature Status
Entry Deadline: September 1, 2024
Signature Status recognizes those practicing and accomplished artists who are dedicated to the educational mission and high aesthetic standards of the Portrait Society of America.
International Portrait Competition
Entry Deadline: February 17, 2025
Showcasing the very best in fine art portraiture and figurative work.
27th annual the Art of the Portrait Conference
The annual portrait and figurative artists’ celebration in Washington, DC, from May 8 to 11, 2025.
For more information, please visit www.portraitsociety.org or call toll-free 1-877-772-4321.