Whitney Abbott was born in 1972 in San Francisco, CA At the age of three, she and her family moved to Carpinteria, CA where she spent much of her childhood drawing the life she found around her on the family's avocado and lemon ranch. Whitney attended UC Santa Cruz from 1990 to 1994, majoring in Fine Art through Porter College. In 1993 she recieved a fellowship to study at the Yale School of Art in Norfolk, CT. After graduating, she returned to Soouthern California, where she continues to paint and teach in the Santa Barbara area. Whitney shows her work at The Easton Gallery in Santa Barbara, CA as well as the New York City Atlantic Gallery.
"Painting, for me, is a celebration of our material world in a very spiritual sense. As a painter, I study the interaction of light against surface, and take this material relationship into the personal, spiritual world of my imagination. At the same time, working with the very tangible elements of the paint itself, I honor the physical nature of creativity.

"To give to the world by taking from it, is the best way to describe why we make art. Some paintings may be more successful than others. But if, in the process of investigation, we stumble across a new idea, or an ancient concept of beauty, the discovery is worth celebrating."
Fellowships and Awards

1992 William Hyde and Susan Benteen Irwin Scholarship

1993 Yale Summer School of Art Fellowship

1994 University of California at Santa Cruz, Dean's Award

1994 College Honors and Honors in the Art Major
Breakfast Room oil on canvas 14 x 11"
Diffused Light, February oil on canvas 14 x 11"
South Mountain oil on canvas 16 x 20"
Beatrice's Orchard oil on canvas 8 x 10"
Family of Eucalyptus oil on canvas 8 x 10"
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