Artist Bio

J “Danielle” Wehunt is a commercial photographer with over ten years of professional experience. During her travels around the country, she sought out a new passion that would satisfy her both cathartically and professionally. She devoted the entire year of 2016 to gain a thorough understanding of painting techniques and theory. Her years of lighting experience are evident in her attention to shadows and highlights, displaying a realistic style portrayed in her paintings. Danielle’s fascination with the bone structure, skin tones, and expression through hair, cosmetics, and clothing shows throughout her body of work. Her intense curiosity for color theory creates surprising yet satisfying color schemes.

Born and raised in Metro Atlanta, Danielle identifies as a proud progressive Southerner. She is a mama to two amazing girls, Violet and Emilie. She has lived in Southern California and Brooklyn, New York, but has made Marblehead, MA, her home for the past 8 years. A self-taught painter, she holds a degree in Commercial Photography from Gwinnett Technical College and attended Arizona State University for Cultural Anthropology. She works full-time as a Senior Marketing Coordinator for an AI training startup.

Danielle was diagnosed with breast cancer in Feb 2023 and is currently trying to figure out how to juggle being a single mom, patient, and full-time breadwinner for her girls.

Artist Statement

With a current focus on portraiture, I have a strong desire to combine modern people and themes with classical stature and stoicism. I love surrounding my subjects with timeless, lush foliage that breathes life into the imagery. Drawing from my experience as a photographer, I approach every painting as I would a photo, concentrating on the emphasis between highlights and shadows. 

I’m drawn to organic shades of green, corals, peaches, pinks, mustard yellows, and bright oranges. Working almost exclusively on finely sanded gessoed wood panels, I prefer velvety textures without visible brushstrokes while preserving a painterly feel. I work mostly by combining acrylics layers first then finishing with oils on more substantial works while preferring watercolor and gouache for smaller projects.

I want people to see what I consider beautiful. There is so much heaviness, pain, and sadness in this world that I want to create something that reminds us that there are also moments of beauty to be captured as well. We’re all connected by our humanity and our ability to understand what someone is feeling without an exchange of words. A face translates into any language.

I’m inspired by painters such as Kehinde Wiley, David Hockney, Alejandro Pasquale, Elena Pancorbo, and Alex Waggoner. I also draw inspiration from editorial photographers such as Zack Arias, Javier Diez, as well as my own photography.