About me

All about me

Anita White was born Anita Sibthorpe in Sydney. When she was three her family moved to Lithgow, where her father was an engineer at the Small Arms Factory. He was a huge influence on her and the way she saw her environment. His love of bushwalking and picnicking meant that many family weekends were spent doing just that, often in the  wilderness of the Blue Mountains, but sometimes further afield, amongst the exotic rocky outcrops of the Warrumbungles. Although he died when she was 18, his way of looking at the world and his love of nature stayed with her.

The landscape of her childhood is an inspiration for her paintings, particularly the still, clear light of winter afternoons. It continues to inspire – she lives in the Blue Mountains with her husband and it’s where they raised their two children.

Her family was very supportive of her art practice, but there was no one close to her with the same passion for painting. Her pathway to becoming an artist has been a long and winding one.

First, she worked as a high school teacher, then requalified to work as an interior decorator, providing colour schemes for clients’ homes and workplaces. This work was a good fit for raising a family, but by the time Anita’s second child was a teenager she was restless, so she joined a painting class and that changed everything.

She’s been making up for lost time ever since. The calmness of her paintings belies the pace at which she works.