Whittome was born in Vancouver, British Columbia on March 4, 1942. She attended the Vancouver School of Art, and then spent five years studying printmaking at Stanley william Hayter's Atelier 17.

From 1968 to 2007, Whittome taught visual art in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University.

Whittome has had over 35 solo exhibitions, including a major retrospective of her work at the Musee de Quebec in 2000.

In 2004, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 1997, she was awarded the Prix du Québec's Prix Paul-Émile-Borduas. She was also awarded the Victor-Martyn-Staunton Prize in 1991, and an award for excellence in the arts from the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation in 1992 and the Governor General of Canada's Visual and Media Arts Award in 2002. She is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.