Lois Donaghey
These paintings are from my series of Oil and Cold Wax Abstract Landscapes. I love working with this medium, and I love using the different of tools to make these paintings: brushes young and old, scrapers, palette knives used and abused, scratchers, pot cleaners, cheese cloth, etching tools, clay tools, wax paper, cotton cloth, burlap, and many other texture making implements.
I am an Artist! I paint with oils and acrylics, and most recently by mixing cold wax medium in my oil paints. I love all of it, the ART stuff! I love the struggle of self-doubt, and constant questioning. Those moments/times when I have to leave my studio, or busy myself cleaning my art space because I feel like I cannot get beyond the wall I have just hit, or self-imposed. And, I love those other moments too. The joys of knowing I have nailed it at the first paint stroke I laid down on the canvas or panel surface. And, I really LOVE those blissful times when I am engaged in painting and have completely lost all connection with my body and the Earth, and am in some ZONE somewhere that feels not entirely Earthly at all. These are the feelings of art that I recall from the beginning of my memory of everything.
It is the passion and enthusiasm and the creative spark that art making gives to me on a very personal level that keeps me ticking. It leads me, and off running I go, back to my studio to pick up my painting tools again and again. There are also the in between times when I feel like I am painting the universe as I walk thru an atmosphere I seem to be conjuring.
It is an enthusiasm for novelty in the human spirit, my spirit, and the quest for knowing, and the embracing of consciousness that I seek thru painting. It must be. Why else would ART have engulfed my life so completely for so long? Why else would it keep me so disconnected while connected for so long? And, why else would it feel so haunting.
I am an artist and meditator, and sometimes when meditating I 'find' (see visions of) paintings. Not always, but sometimes. I love being in that Zone. The Zone of 'finding' paintings, or of seeing more colors than are present, or changing up the colors that I do see so they seem more present to me. I am an Artist and I see myself doing and feeling what Artists do….just hanging out in that Zone, so to speak. Being there and loving it! I see things, or I 'find' things and then I paint a story about it. And, it’s always my story!
Gallery Shows:
Gallery Artist, Healdsburg Center for the Arts, Healdsburg CA.
San Francisco Women's Artists' Gallery Salon, San Francisco, CA March 2023
Sonoma County Art Trails Juried Open Studios 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
San Francisco Open Studios 2021
Art at the Source Sonoma County June 2021, 2022, 2023
Corrick's Santa Rosa, CA
Fulton Crossing Gallery, Santa Rosa, CA
Sonoma County Art Trails October 2018 - Open Studio
Bodega Bay Gallery, Bodega Bay, CA Spring 1985 – Three person show
Gilberts Gallery, Santa Rosa, CA October 1983 – Three person show
Juried Group Shows:
Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA "Color of Water" February 2023, Award-Honorable Mention
San Francisco Women Artists’ Gallery “Edge of Abstraction” November 2022 Juror’s Choice Award
San Francisco Women Artists’ Gallery “Intense Color” May 2022; Juror’s Choice Award
Triton Museum of Art’s statewide 2D Art Competition & Exhibition-Santa Clara, CA; 2021; jurors: Jeff Bramschreiber, Elke Groves, and Francisco Pancho Jiménez
Falkirk Cultural Museum-San Rafael, “Summer 2021 Juried Show”
Crocker|Kingsley Biennial Art Competition 2021
San Francisco Women Artists' Gallery SF, Current
San Francisco Women Artists Gallery Open, "2020 Leap Year", January 2020.
O'Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA "Pixil' 2019
TWIRL Project – A Decade of Artist Interviews “artists blossoming over time”.
NUMU Los Gatos AA, “Greater Bay Area Open” July-Sept 2019 Juror: Ric Ambrose
Sonoma County Art Trails, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Oct 2019
TWIRL Project – A Decade of Artist Interviews “artists blossoming over time”.
O'Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
NUMU Los Gatos AA, “Greater Bay Area Open” July-Sept 2019 Juror: Ric Ambrose
Sonoma County Art Trails, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Oct 2019
TWIRL Project – A Decade of Artist Interviews “artists blossoming over time”.
NUMU Los Gatos AA, “Greater Bay Area Open” July-Sept 2019 Juror: Ric Ambrose
Sonoma County Art Trails, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Oct 2019
Sacramento Fine Art Center, Sacramento, CA. Magnum Opus 30 Annual Steve Memering Juror
Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA Art Trails Exhibit October 2018
Sonoma County Art Trails, Sebastopol, CA June, 2018
Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA July 2018 jurors: Chester Arnold & Kevin Elston
Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA 2018 50|50 Show May, 2018 juror: Andres Guerrero
Marin Society of Artists, Annual Juried, June 2018, Chester Arnold Juror.
Blue Line Arts-Member Show, Roseville, CA July 2018
Pacific Art League, Palo Alto, CA May, 2017
Pacific Art League, Palo Alto, CA, April, 2017
Blue Line Arts NCDC, Roseville, CA March 2017
Blue Line Arts, Roseville, CA April, 2017
Pacific Art League, Palo, Alto, CA March, 2017
Pacific Art League, Palo Alto, CA February 2017
Healdsburg Center for the Arts, Healdsburg, CA January 2017
Art With Impact, San Francisco, CA October, 2016
Healdsburg Center for the Arts, Healdsburg, CA July, 2016
Diego Rivera Gallery, SFAI, San Francisco, CA June, 2016
Marin Society of Artists, Ross , CA February 1988
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Juried Art Auctions for Non-profit Organizations:
ART4Life, Sonoma County, Santa Rosa CA 2019
ART4Life, Sonoma County, Santa Rosa CA 2018
ART4LIFE, Sonoma County, Santa Rosa, CA 2016
Art for Impact, San Francisco, CA October 2016
Northern California Dance Conservatory, Roseville, CA May 2017
The Giving Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Current
