Robin Whitfield

Robin paints on location with watercolor and experiments with foraged wild pigments. She takes a special interest in exploring native habitats on public land in Mississippi. Her lightweight painting system gives her access by foot or kayak to these wild and remote places. Her studio is located just off the square in the historic district of Grenada, Mississippi near Lee Tartt Nature Preserve. Her non profit friends-of-cs.org manages and interprets Chakchiuma Swamp, the natural community within the preserve.

“The shape of viney thickets, the color of moss on winter trees, the pattern of tree tops in puddles, the texture of duckweed across the water, the smell of leaf decay and new growth, the chorus of birds different with every season.

Painting is practice of reverence. A way to connect to the mysterious. To beauty. To nature. To God. The action of translating with paint onto paper is a form of prayer. Many small pieces become one great whole, both revealing and deepening the mystery of being alive on this planet of intricate relationships. My painting process is about being present and paying attention. I consider myself a visual poet - seeking rhythms and rhymes of color and shape, light and dark. My fascination with ecology and geometry calibrates my perception. 

The act of composing is a creative cauldron - colors, shapes and marks are selected and arranged on the paper. In response to both nature and the painting, more colors, shapes and marks are arranged, layered, clustered, wiped off, cut in and thrown about. Pretty sure the magic happens to me with the painting as evidence.

Relating what’s happening with the paint to what is perceived from nature is a dance of addition and subtraction; an act of filtering, distilling and synthesizing what is loved, sensed and understood. I paint on location to fill my senses and suppress my everyday mind. All that I know dissolves and opens an exciting path to the discovery of new things.”

– Robin Whitfield

Robin Whitfield Studio

125 Green St. Grenada, MS 38901 (662) 230-0368

As described by a friend…

“Visiting Robin’s studio is an experience all to itself. You’ll feel like you’ve walked into a Natural History Museum with bird feathers, sun-bleached skulls and bones, smoothed stones, and shells adorning every nook and cranny.”

Robin’s studio is nestled in Grenada’s historic district near Lee Tartt Nature Preserve which contains her special place, Chakchiuma Swamp. Grenada is a known as a busy interstate town located halfway between Memphis and Jackson though for nature lovers it’s an exquisite place to explore abundant public land. It’s filled with a great diversity of wildlife largely due to the long slender county shape stretching across three distinct regions - the Mississippi Delta, Loess Bluffs and North Central Hills.

The Studio itself is an old dry goods store she has been transforming into her creative space since 2001. It currently serves as a workspace / showspace for her original artworks, natural pigments, creative products and classes.  

Visit her in historic downtown Grenada right off the square. It is always best to call or text to make sure she is available.

also find her work at Caron Gallery    Tupelo, Mississippi

Studio Frames

My frames are local and hand crafted from raw board to finished product. Mark Hendren is the studio framer since Winter of 2024. Kory McCool, a former student, has been the studio framer since 2014. He mounts & mats the paintings, Hand crafts molding to then cut, sand, varnish and polish the frames - assembling it all into a finished piece ready to hang.

materials used:

yellow poplar moulding custom milled in Grenada with the soft shine of a natural varnish finish

crescent arctic white core mat board with acid free buffer

archival grade linen and framers tape

clear or museum glass ( a clear non glare glass with uv protection)

PRICE LIST 2024

$3.10 per square inch

Standard Artwork Size

5.5 x 7.5 $135

7.5 x 11 $250

11 x 15 $500

15 x 22 $1025

22 x 30 $2050

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Studio Framing

Mount $15
Matt $20

Glass* $15

Frame $150

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Total $200

Oversize Fee $50 (Sizes over  15 x 22)

*Museum glass available on request / priced by size

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Friends of Chakchiuma Swamp & Lee Tartt Nature Preserve

Robin is the volunteer executive director of a non profit she founded in 2018 - Friends of Chakchiujma Swamp. The mission is to connect people to nature with creativity, curiosity and conservation activities at Lee Tartt Nature Preserve. Her recent schooling in Forest Technology at Holmes Community College has prepared her to be an effective steward.

Lee Tartt Nature Preserve is a 300 acre bottomland hardwood forest containing Chakchiuma Swamp. Other than painting - she spends most of her time caring for and sharing her love for this place through community engagements, habitat management and guided expeditions.