​Bio ~

 

Mary Whitefeather has been painting portraits in oil for the last twenty years by private commission. She has a great love for children and has authored and illustrated three children's books. Mary developed the Palmetto Arts Literacy program in 2013, which seeks to mentor and encourage underprivileged high school students in the visual arts. She occasionally hosts special art events in local schools. Although painting consumes many hours of her day, she also finds time for music, playing the classical guitar and writing music. She is a native of South Carolina, where she currently resides with her husband of thirty years. She is a mother of six children, two of which are still at home, and a grandmother of three.

 

 

A Word From the Artist ~

 

My Artistic Journey

I spent many years painting to earn a buck. I painted what sold, and made my few hundred here and there. I painted anybody who would pay me, and even some that wouldn't pay. For me art was like an old fashioned water pump with a big handle. You pumped hard and out came some cash. I never spent much time trying to understand anything about art, because I didn't really think I was any good at it, just good enough to make some money. I did not enjoy painting either, because I was always overtaxed physically and emotionally with a large needy family, painting to get a project finished with a deadline looming. God sent someone into my life a few years ago who changed everything for me. At an auction he was asked by a dealer to critique my work. He said to himself, “Here is a person who has talent, but she is painting what she hates. I have got to talk to her.” Tim came into my life and began to teach me what it meant to be an artist, things that revolutionized my way of thinking. He told me I was born to paint and gave me tremendous encouragement. It was at this time I began to paint the Native American Indian, material which spoke deeply to me. I stopped painting for a buck and began painting for love. Through the years as a self-taught artist I had developed a peculiar pallet and technique distinctly my own, and was a matured artist in my own right; but finding the right subject matter really became the final key which unlocked the artist deep within me. I have a real confidence that what I am painting now is true art, as it never fails to speak to each person who views it. Although I have only a small bit of Native American blood, the DNA is certainly there, because when I paint I feel these people speaking to me. In this peculiar context I find my own voice, my own heart speaking also, and perhaps that is why it is so moving to others. This is the gift of every true artist; he or she is able to communicate to others what they saw and felt in such a powerful way that it is lasting, whether it is carved, or painted, or written.