Whitney Prentice Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1958 -

Whitney Prentice - Born in 1958, Whitney is the son of cartoonist, illustrator, and award-winning John F. Prentice who wrote and drew the syndicated comic strip “Rip Kirby.” Whitney spent his formative years in the company of his father’s friends and colleagues who were mostly artists.

Whitney did not pursue the serious study of art until age 30. His early school years were marked by learning disabilities and he spent his twenties working in boatyards in Connecticut and California and even crewed on a square-rigged sailing ship. He always enjoyed drawing and at age 30 he had the opportunity to study art full time. He enthusiastically began the study of illustration at Paier College of Art in Hamden, CT. He furthered his art training at the Lyme Academy College of Fine Art earning a professional certificate and at the Graduate School of Figurative Art, New York Academy, earning an MFA in 1999.

His early artistic interest was nautically themed but he became more interested in the human figure as a result of the many classes in life drawing and painting he took. Whitney views his current interest in figurative work as a continuation of the long artistic tradition in Western art, especially as it has evolved since the Renaissance.

Whitney has exhibited his work at the New Britain Museum of American; Dahesh Museum, New York, NY; New Haven Paint and Clay Club; New Haven Brush and Palette Club, Lyme Art Association and many regional venues. He has executed numerous private commissions and his artwork is in private collections. He is currently a faculty member at Paier College of Art, Hamden, CT.

Whitney met in art school, and later married, fellow artist Jan Prentice. They have traveled and painted together in Italy and throughout New England. In the summer of 2013, they undertook a 10,000-mile cross-country painting trip that took them across the United States