Phil WHITING
Whiting was born and grew up in Hull, Yorkshire, where his first success was in winning his school art prize. His education continued at Newcastle, Portsmouth and Falmouth Colleges of Art, where he graduated with a DipAD (Hons) and a PGDip in Fine Art. Noted as 'A significant painter' by the artist Bryan INGHAM, his paintings of post-industrial Cornwall are strongly worked and powerful landscapes of the West Cornish scenes in which he lives.
Phil has travelled widely, especially in 2005, when working on a series of paintings called Places of Mourning in the Western World, which took him to Flanders, Ground Zero, Auschwitz-Birkenau amongst various other geographical sites. For researching that series he also visited sites in Bosnia, Russia, Syria and Lebanon.
His paintings also appear on the website for the 'Survivors of Srebrenica' organisation.
In 2017 Whiting was the winner of the Red Line Art Works Annual Award. The citatation for this award states: 'Phil's art incorporates big events and issues, their awful consequences and our responsibilities for them. His work raises tough questions about what we humans have done, what we have failed to do, what we have looked away from, who we really are, what we should be. This is rare and powerful art which penetrates and can leave its mark on us.'
media
Painter
works and access
Royal Cornwall Museum: Geevor Tin Mine, Winter 1990
Collections: New College Oxford University, Stuart House Museum, Truro School, Monmouth School, Truro Cathedral, Penlee House Gallery & Museum, The Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne MP.
Commissions: The Contemporary Art Society for Wales, The Fund for Refugees in Slovenia, Amnesty International, English Heritage, The Guardian, The European Parliament.
Residencies : 2013 - King's School, Worcester.
Public Collections : painting "Old Mine Workings" acquired for the permanent collection of The Penlee House Museum and Art Gallery, 2016.
exhibitions
2005: NAG; RainyDay Gallery (2005), Penzance: 'Places of Darkness and Light'
Thompson's The City Gallery (2005) Mixed show
The Campden Gallery, London (2005) Solo
Solo shows
European Parliament Building,Brussels 2006,
Royal Cornwall Museum 2008, Bayart Gallery, Cardiff 2008,
Stuart House Museum 2009, New College Oxford University 2009,
Truro Cathedral 2008 & 2012, Belgrave Gallery St Ives 2012.
Solo exhibitions : 2013 - Sir Terry Frost Gallery and John Moore Theatre
Gallery, King's School, Worcester.
Group exhibitions
2013 - Glasbury Arts 10th Anniversary Visual Art Exhibition, Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Merthyr Tydfil (invited artist).
'Unfamiliar Territory. Artists Impressions of the Changing Cornish Landscape'Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall, 2023.
Solo exhibitions
"Opening the Gates of Hell". WW1 Centenary Commemoration
Exhibition. Commissioned Artist, Truro Cathedral, August 2014.
"In Memory of the Forest". Sarah Wiseman Gallery, Oxford, 2015.
"Children Beneath a Different Sky". Leigh Day Human Rights Law Firm, Central London, 2015.
'Places of Mourning in the Western World', Hereford Cathedral, Oct-Nov 2022.
Exhibition catalogue with commentary by The Revd Dean Sarah Brown and Rwanda Genocide survivor Dr Marcel Uwineza.
'Phil Whiting Mini Exhibition' Large painting 'Geevor Tin Mine, Winter
1990' purchased in 1994, and three other of Whiting's mining paintings in
Museum's collection feature in this mini exhibition. Cornwall Museum and Art
Gallery, Oct 2025.
'Places of Mourning in the Western World: a project by landscape and history artist Phil Whiting'Sewell Centre Gallery, Radley College, Oxfordshire, Jan-Feb 2024.
Mixed exhibitions
'Aftermath' The Old Parcel Office Art Space Gallery', Scarborough, May 2026.
Exhibition Catalogue with foreword by curator Rob Moore and front cover
image Phil Whiting's painting 'Earth Conceal Not My Blood'.
memberships
NSA
2017: FRSA (Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts)
misc further info
Commissions
Image of painting 'Sarajevo, Aleppo, Mariupol...the list goes on'
commissioned by The Choir of St John's College, Cambridge for the album cover
artwork of their Album: 'Lament and Liberation'. 'Editor's Choice' Gramophone
Magazine, June 2025.
Phil Whiting's large painting 'Shoah' first exhibited in The Yehudi Menuhin Space, The European Parliament Building, Brussels in 2006 and later purchased by Monmouth School was installed on The Wall of Remembrance in the School Chapel in July 2025.
references
ARTSNA, (2002) Newlyn Society of Artists
Belgrave Gallery Publication (2012) Landscape and Memory. Foreword by Peter Davies
Bertram, G (2011) Echoes & Traces
Davies, P (2007) St Ives 1975-2005 Art Colony in Transition;
English Heritage Images of Cornish Tin (full page illustration of Wheal Jane Totem)
European Parliament Exh Cat (2006) Srebrenica. Paintings from the Grave Forewords by Professor Paul Gough, Roman Halter and Hugo Swire MP
Knight, Gavin and Joanna (2010) Called by Mind & Spirit ;
Rainy Day Gallery Exh Cat (2005) Places of Darkness and Light, Paintings by Phil Whiting
Public Catalogue Foundation (2007) Cornwall & IOS, Oil Paintings in Public Ownership;
Public Catalogue Foundation (2012) Oxford University Collection;
Who's Who in Art (35th Edition, 2012), Morven Press;
Films : 2013 - 'Miloska', a film by Rudi Uran, Kramberger & Uran, Maribor
(shown on Slovenian National Television).
2013 - 'The Lost Boys', Victoria Field, Waterloo Press.
Newspapers/periodicals:
'In the Women's Block.' The Guardian, 20th Sept.2006. 'Artist's Work reflects Man's Inhumanity to Man.'
Simon Parker, Western Morning News, Jan.22nd 2008. 'Whitings Work, Powerful and Emotive.'
David Trigg, The Metro, Aug.26th, 2008.(4star rating);
'Artist Phil Whiting Recalls a Year..' Cornwall Today, Jan.2007.
'Phil Whiting' Pip Palmer, Galleries Magazine, Jan.07;
'Deeper Meaning.' Artist & Illustrator, March 2010.
Music collaborations with composers Russell Pascoe 'The Harrowing of Hell', 2011 and John Guy Storer 'Srebrenica. A Cry From the Grave.' 2012(DVD out on you tube Aug.2012), and with the choirs of New College Oxford University, Truro Cathedral and the choir ,Confitemini 2008-2012.
'Srebrenica. Inspired by the paintings of Phil Whiting'. Poem by Victoria Field, Orbis International Literary Journal, July 2012.
"Third Light". Images of painting used for Simon Parker's Drama Souvenir Programme, Sterts Theatre, Cornwall, 2014.
"A Journey into the Wilds of Our Minds". Anne James, Oxford Times, Jan.2015.
"Oil Paintings in Public Ownership in Oxford University Vol.1. Public Catalogue Foundation, 2015.