Liquid Gold
This apparently abstract work in fact illustrates the play of sunlight on the ocean at sunset. Whitney has managed to so accurately capture the golden essence of the sun as it disappears that the painting seems to be illuminated from behind the canvas. In the close detail of its subject, Whitney’s painting points to the tension between abstraction and representation, questioning our notions of realism and illusion.
About the Artist
C.E. Whitney
b. 1946
Born in Toronto, Canada, the late C.E. Whitney moved to the Cayman Islands in the 1970s. She graduated from City Lit, London, with a diploma in Art & Design, developing her signature photorealist technique over several years. As well as being included in Art of the Cayman Islands, the islands’ first formal art history (Scala Fine Art Publishers Ltd., Fall 2016), Whitney’s work was featured in the NGCI exhibitions All Access (2015), Pop & the Popular (2022), and Thatch Roofs & Ironwood Posts: The Art and Artistry of the Caymanian Home (2024).
