Eugene White, New Pass Bridge, oil on board, 15.5 by 19.5 inches. Signed lower right, titled verso.
Eugene White was an Ohio farmer when, sometime late in the 1940’s, he decided it was time to become an artist. White enrolled at the Ringling School of Art for the Fall 1951 semester, loved the area, and stayed. By 1956 he was winning top awards at the Sarasota Art Associations’ Sea and Land Exhibit and in an Ohio Historical Sports Exhibit. Now a member of the Board of the Manatee County Art Center, White was known for his sunny, and brilliantly colored canvases, painted with a palette knife.
Eugene White, On the Manatee River, oil on canvas 19 by 36 inches. Signed lower right.
White taught art at the Art League of Manatee County for ten years, his work attracting students from across the country. In summer months White took as many as thirty students from the greater Bradenton area to scenic spots in the mountains of North Georgia. When the DeBary Mansion near DeLand became available to the Florida Federation of Art in the summer of 1959, White taught there as a resident artist. The Orlando Sentinel (July 31, 1959), described the scene. “The first month of landscape and portrait instruction at the new art center is ending in a blaze of glory. The lawns are dotted with earnest students at easels, sketching…. There was a drawing class Thursday night with artist Eugene White as instructor. White has proved most popular, remaining for the third week by request. He is intensely interested in the students…in their advancement and working with artists who have already had showings and have come to get suggestions for bettering their portrait work.”
White was listed in Who’s Who in American Art and won awards in his native Ohio and Florida for his work. When he died suddenly, from an apparent heart attack at age 53, his daughter Annie White Morton was left with 500 canvases. She kept them for years until 1990, while living in Greenville, South Carolina, the paintings were put up for sale. Mrs. Morton said, “He never pushed his work, in fact, he supported his family primarily by farming. It seems like we have sold more these past two weeks than Daddy sold in his lifetime.”
Born: 1913, Middle Point, Ohio. Died: January 14, 1966, Sarasota. Education: Ringling School of Art: Fort Wayne School of Art, Indiana. Membership: Art League of Manatee County; Florida Artist Group; Salmagundi Club, NYC; Knickerbocker Artists of New York; Sarasota Art Association; Creative Arts Group of Tampa Bay Area. Exhibits: Art League of Manatee County, Members Exhibit, January 1953; Florida Artist Group, 3rd Annual, national circuit, shown under auspices of the Clearwater Art Group, May 1952 to April 1953, Wharves; Florida State Fair, Tampa, February 1953, oil; Sarasota Art Review Week, Rich-Lebar Jewelers, March 1953; Manatee County Fair, January 1954, prize; Art League of Manatee County, January 1954; Clearwater Art Group 5th annual members exhibit, at Chamber of Commerce building, March 1954, 3rd prize, Leaky Boat; Florida Artist Group, 6th Annual Circuit, Palm Beach Art League, April 1955, Net Wheel; Art League of Manatee County, All Members Exhibit, October 1955, 209 Ninth St. W. Bradenton, oils, Hanging the Nets, Cleaning the Catch; Ft. Lauderdale Foundation of Art, 1st Annual, 1955, honorable mention; Orlando Art School, 1955, one man show; Manatee County Art Center, March 4-16, 1956, exhibit with Nike Parton; Art League of Manatee County, December 1956; Florida Artist Group, annual exhibit and symposium, Morse Gallery, Rollins College, Winter Park, May 1957, Sally; Art League of Manatee County, October 1957, Annie; Florida State Fair, Tampa, February 1958; Art League of Manatee County, 22nd Annual Members Exhibition, February 1958, 2nd prize, Portrait of My Daughter; Tampa Art Institute, March 1958; Contemporary Arts Gallery, Pinellas Park, June 1958; Craft Village, Fourth Street, St. Petersburg, July 1958; Florida Artist Group, 9th Annual Circuited Exhibition, 1958-1959, an oil, In the Bayou; Sarasota Art Association, Flowers and Landscape Exhibition, January 1959, Wrack and Rain, Marigolds; Sarasota Art Association, Ringling Museum, March 1959, My Girl; Art League of Manatee County, Member’s Annual Juried Exhibit, March 1959, In From Play, Now Showing; Bradenton Art Center at Manatee Junior College, January 1959, Ohio Farm Scene; Bradenton Art Center, February 1959, one man exhibit; Anna Maria Island Community Hall, sponsored by Woman’s Auxiliary of the Church of the Annunciation, Sunday March 8, 1959, an oil, Seven, Ten, Nine, Go; Governor’s All Florida Art Show, Ringling Museum of Art, January-February 1960, oil, Boats; Art League of Manatee County, Members Annual, February 1960, Annie; Napier School of Art & Gallery, St. Petersburg, January 1960, one man show; Sarasota Art Association, Members’ Annual Juried Exhibition, February 1960, Ninth Avenue, Portrait of Anne; Sarasota Art Association, Ringling Museum, April 1960, In From Play; Creative Arts Group of Tampa Bay Area, Drawing and Print Competition, January 1961, Contemporary Arts Gallery, Pinellas Park; Tampa Municipal Museum, January 1961; Florida Artist Group, 12th Annual Circuited Exhibition, 1961-62, an oil, Ann; One man shows, Toledo Museum of Art; Longboat Key Art Center; Art Club of St. Petersburg; Sarasota Community Gallery; Belleair Art Center; Van Wert Ohio Art Center; Tampa Art Institute.
