Donna L. Mitchell

Some of the most inspiring opportunities for art come from observations of the world around us.  Travel, both locally and abroad, presents beauty in landscapes, rural communities and busy streetscapes that can provide sudden inspiration.  Location serves as a backdrop for an intricate study of humans and humanity, revealing a much deeper sense of place than is immediately obvious, and an artist’s observation is often rewarded when an image provokes a heartfelt, emotional response.

Through her teens, Donna dabbled in sketching, specifically feeling an affinity with the architecture of older and historical buildings.  Her first exposure to formal art education was the Interior Design program at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ontario.  She worked in Interior Design and Facility Management, bringing an artistic sentiment to her work.  She began to focus on her specific artistic passions at first through a watercolour class in Florida and continuing that path ever since.  Like all artists, she continues to learn, taking part in workshops and classes to develop her skills and passion for her medium of choice.

Her preferred medium is watercolour which provides great challenges in understanding how the paint and water mix and move on the page and when and how to control its’ movement.  Donna’s style, developed over time, is to represent fine detail in her work.  Starting with light washes and gradually integrating more and more opaqueness in layers allowing for greater depth of colour in the subject matter.

Along with her framed paintings, Donna creates small paintings on blank watercolour cards and each card is an original.

For those who have an idea for a specific painting for their home or office, she is available for commission work as well. She generally completes several commissions a year.

In 2022, at the encouragement of her eldest son, Donna participated in her first show – the Crown and Pumpkin Studio Tour in and around Pakenham, Ontario.  Since that time, she has been honoured to show at many different shows in the Ottawa Valley region of Ontario, including the Crown and Pumpkin, the Maple Run Studio Tour, and Almonte’s Art in the Attic.  In 2023, she was honoured to participate in a small show at Lac Bernard in western Quebec, the location of her ancestral home.  She is proud to currently be featured in an ongoing show at JBArts in Almonte, Ontario.

Donna’s preferred method involves travel and photography as a starting point, searching for the right images to inspire emotional and challenging inspiration for evocative paintings.  She specifically searches for interesting contrasts of light and dark complementing an interesting subject.  Short trips and local drives also offer opportunities to find something special.  She strives to depict a sense of place, focusing on the vastness of an area, the history and humanity of a location.

Donna is a member of the Almonte & Area Artists’ Association and is currently the Association’s President.

She welcomes the opportunity to discuss her art and artistic journey.  You can follow her on Instagram or Facebook and contact her through private message on either platform.