It’s when you see a big mass of Maud’s work and really start reflecting on it that you do feel it’s very centered in this sense of the land and of what’s enduring behind the whole human enterprise.
—Reynolds Price

“She was always serious about her art,” recalls a college classmate of artist Maud Gatewood. That zeal was well placed as Gatewood, who died last fall at the age of 70, left a legacy as one of North Carolina’s greatest artists. Known for a tough and demanding exterior, Gatewood let tenderness and reverence infuse her paintings, exposing a passion for landscape and the human condition.~As her paintings reveal the complex and empathic woman behind them, so does a new documentary from Oscar-winning filmmaker David Kasper and artist Carlyle Poteat. Thursday, April 28, at 10 PM, Gatewood: Facing the White Canvas enjoys its statewide television premiere on UNC-TV.

From her small town roots in Yanceyville to exciting global excursions, Gatewood explored subjects and techniques as a painter, teacher and traveler.~Throughout her career, her interests and art paralleled changing attitudes and emerging movements in Southern political, social and cultural life. For over half a century this inspired laborer produced an extraordinary body of work, the fruits of which can now be found in public and private collections throughout the country. Over the course of her colorful life, Gatewood earned honors and accolades as an artist, arts advocate and active citizen. Her extraordinary talent and keen eye explored interactions between nature’s forces and mankind.

The Empowerment Project’s David Kasper & Carlyle Poteat produced and directed Gatewood: Facing the White Canvas, with music by Jack Herrick of The Red Clay Ramblers and David McHugh. Gatewood: Facing the White Canvas weaves biography with personal myth, harvesting recollections from Gatewood's closest friends and colleagues—including novelist Reynolds Price, literary maven Charleen Swansea and North Carolina Museum of Art Director Larry Wheeler—along with rare and revealing commentary from Gatewood herself. The artist’s voice offers insights into the determination and creative process of one of the American South’s most admired painters.

Gatewood: Facing the White Canvas reveals a uniquely gifted yet ordinary woman who faced the white canvas of her paintings and her life with vision and fortitude. Make plans to meet Maud Gatewood Thursday, April 28, at 10 PM, on UNC-TV.

Gatewood: Facing the White Canvas is part of UNC-TV’s ongoing commitment to producing programs for and about North Carolina. Member-supported UNC-TV’s 11 stations comprise North Carolina’s only statewide television network, made possible through a unique partnership of public investment and private support.

—UNC-TV—