Varnette Patricia Honeywood was an American painter, writer, and businesswoman whose paintings and collages depicting African-American life hung on walls in interior settings for The Cosby Show after Camille and Bill Cosby had seen her art and started collecting some of her works.
16 Facts About Varnette Honeywood
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Varnette Honeywood's paintings appeared on television on the Cosby Show spin-off A Different World, as well as on the TV series Amen and 227.
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Varnette Honeywood earned her undergraduate degree in art in 1972 from Spelman College in Atlanta, the first historically black female school of higher education in the United States.
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The Honeywood sisters hoped to make Varnette's work more accessible through their company.
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Varnette Honeywood is well known for her vibrant figurative works depicting African American life.
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Varnette Honeywood's figures, composed of flat simplified shapes are influenced by William H Johnson.
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Varnette Honeywood often showed her figures in profile and exaggerated their features.
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Varnette Honeywood worked with acrylic paint and in collage, her collage works are reminiscent of Romare Bearden.
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Varnette Honeywood drew inspiration from her own community to create images of everyday African American life, with subjects ranging from family and social gatherings to church settings.
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Varnette Honeywood used bright colors to reflect the vibrancy and colorfulness found in African American communities.
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Varnette Honeywood had been asked to create a painting to be included for the show's pilot and different examples of her paintings were cycled through during the show's run.
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Varnette Honeywood later created a mural as a backdrop for Cosby's television series Kids Say the Darndest Things, and her art appeared in the television series My Wife and Kids, Smart Guy, The Steve Harvey Show, Gullah Gullah Island, ;Golden Girls, Melrose Place, Amen, 227 and A Different World.
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Varnette Honeywood worked together with Bill Cosby to create the characters and illustrations in the book series Little Bill, which became the basis for the TV series of the same name.
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Varnette Honeywood died at age 59 on September 12,2010, in Los Angeles after fighting cancer for two years.
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Varnette P Honeywood Foundation is inspired by the principals of fostering a sense of common ground among all people, improving the quality of life for every member of the human family, and cultivating a widespread shared commitment to creating a more enlightened society for the benefit of future generations.
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Varnette Honeywood is recognized by contemporary artists today for her significant contribution, helping to envision and shape Black visual culture.