Mary Whyte (b. 1953) is an American figurative artist known internationally for her watercolors of contemporary people. Her works are in private, corporate, university and public collections nationwide, and have been featured in numerous media outlets including CBS Sunday Morning, PBS and NPR. In 2013, Whyte was one of ten artists worldwide invited to travel to China and exhibit her watercolors at the Nanning Art Museum in Nanning, Guangxi.
The author of seven books including We the People: Portraits of Veterans in America, Whyte’s work has also been featured in many international publications, including periodicals and books in China, Russia, France, Germany, Canada and Taiwan.
She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Portrait Society of America’s Gold Medal, the Carolinas Freedom Foundation’s Freedom Award, and the South Carolina Governor’s Award for the Arts, South Carolina’s highest honor in the arts.
Whyte received the 2020 National DAR Medal of Honor and the 2020 NSDAR Women in the Arts Award. In 2021 Mary Whyte received an honorary doctorate degree from Converse University in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
In 2019 Whyte founded the Patriot Art Foundation as a means to honor and inspire veterans through the arts.
