GAMBLE/WHITEHEAD COLLABORATIONS ~ About That Signature

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Yes, it is unusual for two artists to sign the same work. No, it is not unusual for more than one artist to work on the same piece. It happens all the time. Since cave dwelling days, artists have worked together, sometimes standing side by side, sometimes taking turns. From 1994- 2001, Wanda Gamble and Glenn Whitehead shared a large studio in a small town in Central Texas. They had painted together outdoors, sometimes side by side, for twenty years. They were attracted to similar subjects—country roads, secretive creek beds, brightly lit cliffs and limestone ledges, the surf, beaches, and fishing piers of the Gulf Coast. They admired the same masters—Monet, Bonnard, Degas, Homer, and Sargent. Once they were married to each other. Then they became partners of a different sort. A single painting produced by two hands. Pretending only one person produced the work doesn’t seem fair to the other. Gamble and Whitehead felt the dual signature was straightforward and the most appropriate way to respect each other.