Lee Whitney Dimeo
To Lee Whitney Dimeo, creating art is both the challenge and the passion of her existence. Her current work explores a literal and figurative representation of landscape, in contrast to earlier works of almost complete abstraction. She still relies on the connection drawn between an emotional and visual experience.
Lee’s formal education was completed at Rhode Island School of Design, where she received a BFA in Illustration in 1986. Her final year at RISD was spent studying in Rome, Italy, with RISD’s European Honors Program. In Rome, she began to paint large abstractions on canvas with translucent layers of acrylic paint and collaged paper. She was struck by the seemingly timeless expanse of history which loomed behind every day life in Rome, as though events, images, lives, and time should all be a part of one canvas.
Lee has worked almost exclusively in pastel since 1990, when she studied in Taos, New Mexico under the direction of pastel artist, critic, and teacher, Lois Tarlow. “With pastel, I am able to achieve the boldness in light and shade more commonly associated with oil paints.” Today, Lee works both on location and in her studio. Her work is inspired by continuous, and often repeated travels to locations in coastal Canada and Prince Edward Island. Closer to home in Rhode Island, she continues to explore the inexhaustible beauty of coastal and inland New England.