Donna Walker

New Painting- Coastline

Date
3/13/2020 10:14:33 AM

I just finished this 12x36 painting last week. Coastline. Oil on Canvas. I love the long format- it's just a fun size to play with. I paint the edges of my paintings, with the image continuing around the sides, so it can be hung with or without a frame.

Welcome

Date
1/2/2020 12:59:23 PM

Author
Donna Walker

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I have recently completely updated and changed my website! This was a long and involved process, but I am happy to have an easier way to keep it updated and looking fresh. My older website and blog with years of updates are gone, and I will be adding news and new artwork to my site and this blog page, so it is looking a little empty just now. Please have a look around, and email me with any questions. I love to hear from clients and love working on commissions, creating unique custom paintings.

I am usually quite shy about telling viewers about myself. I love to paint and hope that my work speaks for itself, but I am beginning to think I should add a little information and share some background. I grew up in Northern Indiana, am the middle of three sisters, and still have a love of the midwest, although I am now living in Texas, with my husband of 19 years, Scott. I have always appreciated the rural scenes of places I have lived in Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and all the beautiful places I have been lucky enough to visit. I get so much inspiration from my travels to both coasts, Canada, Italy, Australia, Spain, etc... Scott and my recent trip to Nova Scotia was especially vivid, with gorgeous coastal towns and lush farmland. Boathouses, colorful old victorians, weatherbeaten barns, bright colors, and barren shores all stay in my mind as I paint. I strive to create a simplified order in my paintings, leaving out details, and making a calm, serene scene. I have been told many times my paintings remind people of a specific landscape but are also universal. I hope they evoke a nostalgia, a serenity, a sense of place and home. A little more of my favorite things, and then I will save more for another future post.

I have been an enthusiastic baker of sourdough bread for over a year now! I need to post images of my artisan loaves.

I love to read great fiction, and biographies, but am no match for Scott, who collects books and reads more than anyone I know, remembering everything.

I used to work in art conservation and have the upmost respect for those who do this important work of saving our art treasures and who are quietly working behind the scenes. I worked on many large mural projects from the Allen County Courthouse for 3 years, to Dallas Fair Park Murals for 2 years.

My Masters of Fine Art degree is in printmaking, which was a bit of an impractical choice, as I don't have the equipment to create etchings, or woodcuts, but boy did I love creating hand pulled prints and I still miss it.

I love old movies! Silent films, thrillers, film noir, foreign films, and we have a nice collection of old movie posters. My favorite films are anything by Chaplin (City Lights, The Kid, Modern Times...), Hitchcock (North by Northwest, Psycho, Rear Window...) Noir (Out of the Past, The Killers, The Big Sleep, The Glass Key...) Classics (Sweet Smell of Success, All About Eve, East of Eden, The Lady Eve, The Third Man...) I could go on and on. :)

My husband Scott is a wonderful pianist - as a serious hobby.

We met at the movies. Literally! We were the only two people at a movie theater on a Tuesday night. A dutch film called Karakter!

I listen only to classical music when I paint. There is something that just switches my brain into work mode, and keeps me alert and thoughtful. When I am not working, I love Jazz, Blues, Rhythm and Blues, Soulful singers of any age, and eighties music just for fun.

I love to garden, and have a large xeriscape menagerie of Texas plants in my front yard that I can see as I paint.

My studio mate is Nora, a papillon mix with an oversized personality!