Nancy R. M. Whitin

Nancy R. M. Whitin

Nancy R.M.Whitin, a former publishing VP, has studied with the Silvermine Guild, RISD, and extensively with private instructors. She debuted her new series of large horse-themed canvases in a solo show at Gallery At Four in Tiverton, RI. Painted in a collaboration with her horse, the paintings convey the size and movement of horses.

Whitin has been juried into the prestigious Pastel Society of America, and was recently awarded an Honorable Mention by Pastel Journal in their 24th  Annual Pastel 100 International Competition for "Go Ask Alice" . "Not So Blue" was awarded an Honorable Mention in the journal's 22nd Annual Pastel 100. She has been a national finalist in the Southwest Art Magazine's 2021 Annual Artistic Excellence Competition for Full Of Beans, and the Artist’s Magazine Annual Competition three times -- in 2014 for her Rainproof Donkey, in 2016 for her Buckwheat and Alfalfa and in 2017 for “Sparky.” She was honored to be one of the fifteen artists invited to participate in the 2012 invitational exhibit Our Shared Planet, examining animals as the inspiration for art, at the Parsons Gallery, The Lexington Arts Society in Lexington, MA -- at which time her artwork was featured in the Boston Globe’s Art Section.

 An avid sailor, Whitin often paints the marshes and dunes of the beautiful South Coast. She is a member of the South Coast Artists Organization, the Pastel Society of America, the Westport Art Group, the Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod, the Marion Art Center, the North River Arts Center, the Southeastern Pastel Society, and the Cape Cod Arts Center. 

Whitin's Appaloosa often serves as a model, and she confesses she loves fast horses. So when she traded in her NYC publishing job and the iconic high heels for muck boots and moved to the country, she embarked on her life-long passion to paint horses. The prestigious American Academy of Equine Art in Kentucky has exhibited her horse paintings.

The donkeys' expressions and poses she paints are very real -- they are not exaggerated. Her 4000+ digital photos serve as proof that all animals have unique personalities and emotions that sometimes mirror our own. As one of her customers wrote: "Your work caught us by surprise, bringing a bit of levity and honesty to the day."

According to Nancy, her paintings of animals, beaches , fields, and marshes are the beginning of a dialog about "the wonders of joy, empathy and beauty existing in our natural world.

"The challenge becomes to portray the emotion of the moment. I notice if the donkeys have soft eyes, or I sit silently in a kayak in the marsh — listening to the teaming life surrounding us.

"Humans have been sorely unappreciative in our understanding of animal intelligence, and scientists  are now discovering the range of animal abilities and emotions are far more complex than ever expected. With this knowledge, my painter’s quest becomes even more inspiring to me as a search for stories and individual personalities."



Whitin is also working on a series of large-scale drawings (50" x 75") of Civil War horses. http://www.civilwarhorses.net.