Of all the PBS oil painters, she was my favorite and the most knowledgeable about the hows and whys of light and pigment. She also seemed like she'd be a lot of fun to hang out with.
I learned early in my painting life that white in any usage is the most complex color to achieve in a believable way. It seems white is never really white and often is an amalgam of many subtle parts of the spectrum.
Actually the whole....white.... idea behind painting, Is...... you are really painting the reflected colors on the..... white. Like painting chrome, you are painting the reflection. It's ALL illusionary. White is not white, neither is chrome.