By LETTY NEWKIRK, for The Democrat
A local mother and her daughter, heads bent over a lesson in their retail store, became the subject of an award-winning painting in the 40th Indiana Heritage Arts Annual Exhibition and Sale.
It can be seen at the Brown County Art Gallery. The IHA board of directors purchased the painting, the 18th, for its permanent collection.
“There they were (mother and daughter) seated at a table with the window backlit behind them, showing people walking by and the town of Nashville,” said Libby Whipple of Avon, the painter of “Hoosier Lesson.”
Whipple’s oil painting was named the $500 Ada Shulz Memorial Award winner.
“Hoosier Lesson” joined 99 other pictures at the art gallery for a free exhibition, which just ended on June 30. Selections from the IHA collection are on display year-round and at West Baden Springs Hotel in French Lick.
Mary Besosa, with her husband Robb, are owners of Hoosier Barn and Table at 135 N. Van Buren St., just downhill from the Brown County History Center. Marcelena, their 6-year-old daughter, is the pupil. The couple owns four shop spaces and a house. Robb fashions wood objects like tables and benches from reclaimed barns and salvaged wood. The couple’s son, Isaiah, loves to draw and experiment with oil paints, Mary said.
“I have an affinity for mothers and daughters, and I explained I was an artist and would like to paint them,” Whipple said. “Mary said, ‘Yes.’ Then I noticed she was wearing a shirt with the word ‘Hoosier’ on it.”
In addition to the memorial prize, donated by Randall Tucker of Columbus, Whipple won a $1,000 and a $500 prize in IHA shows. Her painting, “Daffodils,” was also juried into the show.
“One of my favorite paintings,” Whipple said, “is one I did in 2011 of my daughter Katie titled ‘The Why.’” She said she found a speech written by her late father, Richard Givan, a former chief justice of the Indiana Supreme Court, in which he stated, ‘It is the why that gives rise to the dream.’” She incorporated the words in her painting.
Katie, who began painting at the age of 5 with her mother, is now pursuing an art career in New York City. She also was juried into two IHA shows.
Whipple grew up in Plainfield, and she and husband, Dan, reared Katie and her three brothers in Indiana. A graduate of the IU Law School, Whipple turned to painting while her children were small.
“I never had formal training,” she said. One of her inspirations is Richard Schmid, an award-winning American realist painter and educator. “I started painting late at night when the kids were asleep. I’m not a plein air painter. By the time I fought the bugs and schlepped my equipment to go paint, I decided it wasn’t my thing,” she said laughing.
Her studio has been next to the laundry room for some time, she said. “I spent a lot of time in the laundry room,” she said, “so it made sense.”
Whipple’s favorite subject is people, but she said she paints many different things. “I like to mix up my subjects,” she said.
Cooking and travel with her husband are things she likes to also do. “It’s a matter of self discipline,” she said, “but there’s not a time that I don’t paint.”
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“Blossoms at Yellowwood,” a painting by Tim Greatbatch of Brown County, was chosen as the Indiana Heritage Arts People’s Choice award-winner by visitors to the 40th annual show. Greatbatch won $500, awarded by Michael Fulton and Judith Stewart.
This painting also won the T.C. Steele Memorial Award of $500, sponsored by Brad and Zee Hirst.
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