Inside the Art: Aaron Whitehouse

The next artists featured in our “Inside the Art” blog series is Atlanta-based painter Aaron Whitehouse who has also dabbled in film, music, and poetry. Two Aaron Whitehouse abstract paintings recently made their way into the ADAC showroom where they are displayed alongside Tritter Feefer Inc. furniture and Littlefield Home accessories. Whitehouse’s paintings are marked by their striking texture and their atmospheric combination of pastel and earth tones. Continue reading to find out more about Whitehouse’s unique career trajectory and his artistic practice.

Whitehouse’s personal website states that he was born in Indiana but grew up in Atlanta, where he studied film at Georgia State. Whitehouse cites a “spiritual awakening” which he experienced while in college as “the most important step in his development as an artist” and the motivator behind his interest in meditation and sacred texts. Driven by this interest in spirituality, Whitehouse enrolled in a masters program of divinity at Southern Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina before deciding to pursue a more creative career path in Maui, Hawaii for a year.

Whitehouse’s next career-move took him to California, where he worked in the film industry. According to to Whitehouse’s personal website, this is when “the urge to expand artistically began to stir yet again,” and Whitehouse returned to his Atlanta roots to start a band called “The Romenz” and pursue a career in the music industry. It was only after Whitehouse dabbled in Atlanta’s Indie Rock scene that he decided to pursue a career in Fine Arts. Whitehouse found his true passion in creating Mixed Media artwork which “provided the perfect storm for Aaron’s variety of creative urges and incessant need to evolve artistically.”

Whitehouse has experimented with a number of materials when creating his artwork, including resin and earth-tone colored paint. Whitehouse acknowledges that his past experiences, especially those which were focused on spirituality and finding tranquility, influence the art work he creates. Inspired by “contemplation and other forms of communication,” as well as “the power of non-thinking” (akin to the Buddhist concept of beginner’s mind or non-action), Whitehouse prefers to think only of color-palette when creating a new piece. Whitehouse says on his website that the rest of the work flows from “what feelings I am experiencing in my life during that time period or moment.”

Whitehouse’s earth-toned paintings, including those we have here at Littlefield Home, were created in an effort for him to discover his “vocation” or “place in the world.” Whitehouse, focussed on “the here and now,” creates paintings which are as “immersed in the world” as he is. Whitehouse says that this is the reason behind why the primary palette of his work “involves ‘earth tones'” and colors that allude to “the ground and strength.”

Looking for some strength and grounding during an anxious year like this one? Look no further than Aaron Whitehouse’s original mixed media artwork, available here at Littlefield Home.