Pastel Podcast Episode 18: Skip Whitcomb

Skip Whitcomb on Ranch Roots, Mentors, and a Lifetime of Painting the West

Skip Whitcomb grew up on a cattle-and-horse ranch in Eastern Colorado, surrounded by open land, big skies, and a father and grandfather so particular about how a horse should look that he gave up drawing them altogether. That same landscape has been his subject — and his spiritual home — ever since. In this episode, hosts Kari Stober and Lisa Skelly sit down with Skip to trace his path from ranch kid to one of the most respected plein air painters working in oil and pastel today, shaped along the way by mentors who pushed him outdoors, challenged his assumptions, and helped him find his own voice.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• How growing up on a ranch near Sterling, Colorado shaped Skip’s lifelong subject: the landscape of the American West
• The college drawing class — and the blunt instructor — that convinced him to become an art major
• Why he chose Art Center College of Design and how its rigorous rendering classes “got tightness out of his blood early”
• How mentor Ned Jacob pushed him outdoors and handed him Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting as his “Bible”
• The influence of instructor Don Putman on his painterly, interpretive style
• Why he never works outdoors in pastel — and what he does instead with oil field studies
• How he combines multiple plein air studies into one finished pastel, and why artists shouldn’t feel bound to paint exactly what’s there
• His love-hate relationship with choosing between oil and pastel for a given piece
• The limited-palette, color-harmony method at the core of his year-long mentoring program
• Why he believes “values do all the work and color gets the credit”
• What’s next: the Coors Show in Denver this January

Timestamps

• 0:00 – Welcome & host updates (Lisa’s trip to Scottsdale, Kari’s Gouache Live guests, three pastel finalists in the PleinAir Salon Art Prize)
• 2:57 – Introducing Skip Whitcomb: Colorado rancher-turned-painter, draftsman, printmaker, and longtime mentor to Kim Lordier
• 7:16 – Growing up on a cattle-and-horse ranch in Eastern Colorado — and why he didn’t paint horses as a kid
• 10:53 – College, the drawing class that changed everything, and becoming an art major
• 18:30 – Starting out as an illustration major (and getting more painting instruction than the painting majors)
• 22:25 – Rediscovering pastel after art school — “a perfect combination of drawing and painting”
• 24:02 – Mentor Ned Jacob’s push outdoors and the Carlson’s guide that became his “Bible”
• 27:16 – Instructor Don Putman’s influence on his painterly, interpretive approach
• 30:30 – Why Skip never paints outdoors in pastel, and how he builds pastels from oil field studies
• 33:24 – Combining multiple studies into one composition — “we’re not slaves to nature”
• 36:03 – Skip’s love-hate relationship with choosing between oil and pastel
• 46:33 – Inside his year-long color-harmony mentoring program with Tucson Art Academy
• 1:17:58 – Skip’s core teaching principle: “values do all the work and color gets the credit”

Resources & Links

• Skip’s website: https://www.skipwhitcomb.com
• Skip’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skipwhitcomb
• Skip’s Upcoming Event: The Coors Western Art Exhibition & Sale — Denver, CO (January)
• IAPS (International Association of Pastel Societies): iapspastel.org — find a member society near you
• Lisa Skelly: lisaskellyfineart.com
• The Pastel Podcast: thepastelspodcast.com
• Pastel Today Newsletter: Sponsor of the Pastel Podcast

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Until next time — stay vibrant!