Nigel Whittaker Art
One Minute To Midnight
Exhibitor in 2019 BP Portrait Award
selected from more than 2,500 entries from 84 countries.
Growing up Dad was a strong character both physically and emotionally I did this painting because it was quite a shock to see how diminished he was in later years. He looked so small and vulnerable and I deliberately made the painting look grey and bleak. I hope there is a quiet dignity to it all though.
Bill Whittaker - Gloriously Irritating
Selected for Sunday Times Watercolour
exhibition 2018
Dad was 92 and could be gloriously irritating and curmudgeonly which made him feel happy, I found this very annoying. I had developed a technique over the years to deal with this. I would start to hug him and then start to tickle him.
I had been tickling Dad for a good 30 seconds and he was already laughing uncontrollably then the downright dastardly in me decided to blow a big long raspberry on his neck, all the strength left his body and he was just putty in my hands and we both collapsed in hysterics.
Richard Dawkins
When I meet him what stood out for me was his keen intelligence and gentle soul. This is the first of a series I intend to do. I know he is a fan of Douglas Adams (Author of Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy) so I chose this quote from that book as the title of the painting.
"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.”
He is the author of The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins has made it his mission in life to preach genetics to the masses and root out religious dogma wherever he finds it. He is a fellow of New College, Oxford, and former Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science.
I’m not going to spend my life being a colour
You grow up hearing it like weather: ginger nut, carrot head, said with a grin that’s meant to make it harmless. But repetition has a way of sanding you down. It’s “banter” right up until it isn’t, and the world expects you to carry it lightly because, after all, it’s only a colour.
Yet this portrait suggests something deeper: a person refusing to be reduced. Once, flame-haired meant danger, witchcraft, the stake. Now it means lazy permission. Abroad, redheads are admired; here, they’re fair game. Eve’s line lands cleanly: no, I won’t live as a label.
I’m not going to spend my life being a colour”