What is Tandem Painting?
Tandem Painting is the collaborative art studio of Suzette McDonough and James Whitehouse. Initially, they painted in acrylics, side-by-side, same size canvases and image, for a "he said/she said" visual dialogue. Now, more often than not, they paint together on the same canvas. Other times they work on their own pieces, but always talking through ideas together, so each painting still feels connected to a shared vision — even when only one of them picks up the brush.
Their paintings show their own multi-racial family, friends, and community in the California Bay Area. They paint them the way old European royal portraits were once painted — the kind of grand, large, formal style that historically left people who look like their loved ones out of the picture entirely. For Suzette and James, this is a way of taking a stand: by painting the people they love as regal, dignified, and fully seen, exactly as they already view them.
J. Lee
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James' painting
Suzette's painting
Painted together on the same canvas
