Henry Wingate (20 / 21st Century)
Henry Wingate (20 / 21st Century)
Henry Wingate has followed an unusual path in becoming a fine artist. Because modern and abstract art dominated most college art departments during the 1980’s, Wingate decided against going to school for art, and instead received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. His Naval career culminated in service as an F-14 pilot on board the USS Kennedy. After his tour of duty with the Navy, he moved to Boston in 1994 to study with Paul Ingbretson, a leading ‘Boston School’ painter and teacher. He spent five years in the Ingbretson Atelier, and also studied at the Charles H. Cecil Studios in Florence, Italy. Both Ingbretson and Cecil had studied under revered Boston painter, R.H. Ives Gammell. A leading Boston School teacher, writer and painter, Gammell was keeping alive the traditional atelier method of painting instruction that harkened back to the 19th century Paris ateliers.
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Wingate has won numerous awards, including first prize in the American Society of Portrait Artists 2000 competition, the Gold Medal of Honor at the 2003 Hudson Valley Art Association annual exhibition, and the Best Painting from Life Award of the National Oil and Acrylic Painters’ Society in 2003. His work was also featured as the cover article in the November 2001 issue of American Artist. As a strong advocate of the Boston School way of painting, Wingate paints directly from life. No photographs are used during the process. Wingate explains, ‘Painting from life involves a slow evolution and a refinement from day to day throughout the sittings. Slight changes in expression and in mood can be captured by the artist… In painting from life, the artist spends many, many hours with the subject and acquires a good feel for his character. In painting from a photograph, there is just the attempt at likeness. That is, the product is judged mainly on how closely it resembles the photograph.’ The process includes sittings of 2-3 hours a day for several weeks. Wingate is happy to travel to a client’s home, or will paint the client at his studio in Madison, Virginia.
