Painting the Lakes Region with Liane Whittum

By Kathi Caldwell-Hopper

Photos courtesy Liane Whittum

Artist Liane Whittum drives a lot. She also observes a lot and she paints a lot. These things are all part of Liane’s life as an artist, although one might not expect driving would be part of a creative routine.

Liane, who lives in the village of Hill, New Hampshire with her husband and daughter, spends as much time as possible each day in her home studio. These days, the time is cut a bit short as she homeschools her daughter, due to school closures because of the pandemic. 

However, Liane, who is a well-known and sought-after artist in the Newfound Lake area, finds her day-to-day life artistically inspirational. This includes driving her daughter to appointments and even such mundane things as a trip to the store. “I seem to paint things I am around the most,” Liane explains. Some of her observations are inadvertent and can seem quite random; while most of us would drive by an old trailer or swampy area, she is immediately attracted to the colors, the composition and the mood created by the subject matter.

“I am drawn to different parts of New Hampshire. I like the postcard beautiful scenes, but I am interested in the other side as well,” Liane explains. “It is all part of what makes up the places where we live.”

When viewing Liane’s paintings and drawings, her skill and her sharp eye for a scene are readily apparent. We see places we know, and think to ourselves, “Oh yes, I remember that view or that highway, but I never saw how colorful or randomly beautiful it is the way Liane sees it in a painting.”

The paintings evoke not only a recognition of places, but they also prod at our memories and bring back remembrances of a day heading north on I-93 to look at foliage; a farm we passed where the spring mist rose from a field; a trailer park with claustrophobic snowbanks on a cold January evening when the street lamps just came on to cast a pink glow. We recall what the heat of a July day felt like as we drove a country road when the fiery orange sun slid behind the mountains at sunset or the lonely, almost frightening feeling of an old, abandoned home beside a secondary road. 

Liane describes her painting style as “realistic interpretation of the area where I live; sometimes with non-traditional subjects.” Indeed, the subjects range from beautiful landscapes to such things as a roadside parking area with storage trucks or a seemingly simple still life of a pear. Nothing is off limits for Liane and can be a way for her to interpret and learn about the world.

Although she now lives with her husband and daughter in rural Hill, Liane was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and moved at age five with her family to Contoocook, New Hampshire in 1982. She lived in Contoocook for most of her childhood, graduating from high school there. She began her career at age 19, designing and painting for a furniture company based in Goffstown, New Hampshire. Unlike most young people fresh out of high school and headed to college, Liane has painted many commissioned pieces purchased by private collectors, and her work has been carried in stores across New England, including Pier 1 Imports. Her immediate entry into the world of a professional artist speaks to her immense talent.

In her 30s, Liane fulfilled her lifelong desire to attend art school. “My husband was supportive and he helped me for four years so I could attend New England College. It was a good fit for me as a mom and because of my schedule. I have a degree in studio arts, with a major in painting,” she says. 

Like many artists, Liane has fashioned her life as a creative person to blend with her role as a parent. While she did not choose a traditional career path, Liane often takes on commissions and she is represented in galleries and also teaches private classes. She has a definite following and people all over the Newfound area and far beyond cherish her paintings.

As for her painting style, Liane says, “I am sort of a blended traditionalist, which is realism with a little bit of Impressionism. I focus a lot on realism, and when I do plein air painting, my style is a lot looser because when outside, I have to work quickly.”

She relates stories of particular places she has painted and some are amusing or informative. For example, she saw the trailer park with snow across the street from a gym (her daughter is a competitive gymnast and Liane drives her to the gym often). It might seem like a random thing to paint – a trailer park – but Liane liked the light, the colors and composition. With this subject and many others, she might make sketches of the scene and/or take photographs for reference. It is certainly near to impossible to paint outside in the cold winter, so reference sketches and photos are extremely helpful when Liane gets back to the studio to paint.

Another drive she took, this time to Jaffrey, New Hampshire to help hang an art show, took her past a factory where she had a moment of inspiration. “I saw the old factory, which was a minty green in color, on an overcast day, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I am going to plein air paint there!’” Certain colors, she explains, feed her and give her a desire to capture what she sees and to share it with others.

Liane sites many influences on her painting, from White Mountain region artist Erik Koepel, because she likes “his traditional way of doing things” to New Hampshire artist Byron Carr. She also loves the art of John Singer Sargent and Ivan Kramskoi, an artist who spearheaded a Russian genre of painting, Edward Hopper to Dutch still life masters. Liane speaks glowingly of instructors from New England College, including Inez McDermott, Daryl Furtkamp, Devin Mozdierz, Peter Granucci and Jay Bordage.

Recently, after learning of some rather discouraging media coverage of the pandemic and its effects on her area, Liane decided it would be her call to action to do something positive at this difficult time. “It made me ask myself what I can do to change the discouraging mindset,” she comments. “We aren’t just victims of our circumstances and I told myself I would get out and paint something nice; something meaningful although the weather wasn’t great. I chose a scene where I once painted and always wanted to return.” The scene, a farm not far from her home, is the subject for her uplifting mindset of doing what she can to project the positive during these pandemic times.

As a full-time artist, Liane has experienced the joys of being her own boss and the freedom to create every day. But it means she must be in charge of a lot of different things and wear many hats. Part of her creativity means challenging herself, such as a recent commission to paint a pet and its owner. She wanted to experiment and do the painting to accept the challenge of something new and she has learned much from the process. 

Talking about individual paintings, Liane starts by saying she often likes to paint unusual things. “I like a lot of man-made structures, such as buildings. I also like light, and sometimes I can see the composition as a painting as I am driving by something. It strikes me – it feels like a painting already and it has key elements, such as a late afternoon atmosphere. I am trying to focus on that golden hour, when light casts shadows. The sun is warm and it gives off a wonderful feeling. And I am interested in painting night scenes - nocturnes - and such things as snowbanks under parking lot lights.”

 Liane painted “Afternoon in Bridgewater” last April. She started first with a sketch on site and then did a plein air painting and finished by taking a lot of photos of the scene at different times of the day. “I recently went back there again and took more photos,” she says.

“January Dream”, the painting of the trailer park with snowbanks was painted using photos, due to the fact that it was wintertime and too cold to paint outside. 

Another painting, called “4th of July”, gives the viewer a front seat in Liane’s car with the road ahead and a very hot sun setting behind the trees. Liane says this very view, when she and her husband and daughter were driving to Andover, New Hampshire, on the 4th of July, inspired the painting. “We were on Rt. 104 in Danbury. It was late afternoon and we were on our way to see the fireworks. There were bugs the ed on windshield of the truck, as often happens in the summer, and the sunshine picked up and reflected off the bugs. I decided to include them in the painting.” Liane recalls the bugs looked rather like little fairies flitting through the air and the painting certainly has a highly atmospheric feeling.

Most of her paintings are smaller in size: 9 x 12 or 12 x 16, although she is now working on a painting of downtown Bristol that is around 14 x 24. No matter the painting’s size, a variety of people collect Liane’s artwork, from locals to out-of-staters and collectors from farther afield. 

Although it is difficult to get studio time, due to temporarily homeschooling her daughter during the pandemic closures, Liane remains positive and grateful for all she has and her many talents. She looks forward to having a presence at the August League of NH Craftsmen Fair at Sunapee, New Hampshire. As a member of the NH Art Association, Liane will be participating in the group’s tent display at the fair during a plein air day.

Always looking ahead, Liane hopes, when things open back up after the pandemic recedes, to get back to New York City and also to keep painting local scenes and perhaps gain entrance to more galleries. 

As she drives the highways and backroads of New Hampshire, spotting places bucolic as well as areas others would view as mundane, Liane embraces and interprets it all, painting with skill and fondness the many scenes of the Lakes Region.

(Liane is a juried member of the NH Art Association. She has won many awards, including the Washington SQ Outdoor Exhibit Award and the Gamblin Material for a Landscape in Oil Award from the Salmagundi Club in New York City. Her work is available at Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery at NH Art Association in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and the Prospect Hill Home Gallery in Sunapee, New Hampshire. To see more of Liane’s work, visit www.lianewhittum.com or email liane.whittum@yahoo.com.)