Featured Artist Donna Maloney

Australian artist Donna Maloney often uses vivid colors in her watercolors to convey happiness and her love of the natural world. Enjoy more of her beautiful and vibrant art by visiting her website.

 

 

My favourite medium is watercolours, however many of my pieces include collage and text. When I use watercolour I allow myself to have fun with it and let the medium flow naturally.

 

 

I also have art journals where I have my reference photos and tests where I have experimented with different colour and techniques. This helps me reflect and further develop my skills as a professional in the art industry.

 

 

My palette is abundant with bright and colourful hues and the majority of my paintings are vivid. I do this so that I can diminish some of the negativity in our world. My husband works away from home quite often and I found painting to be to be a cathartic and engaging experience for me ever since my now adult children were young.

 

 

This year I am in eight exhibitions, one of those being my solo exhibition. I am a member of the Townsville Watercolour Group and we have five exhibitions each year. I will also participate in the Townsville Art Awards run by the Townsville Art Society.

 

 

I am a resident artist of The Drill Hall Studio where I work one day a week, plus teach beginner watercolour classes. We have scheduled a few exhibitions this year; one of these being an altered book exhibition.

 

 

I was immediately drawn to painting rainforest scenes where I would sit for hours soaking in every detail of the surrounds.

 

 

I have a collection consisting of thousands of photos of rainforests, many of which are from trips my family and I have taken, as well as a variety of reference photos for my art journals. I love and am captivated by the environment and natural world and find myself fascinated by it.

 

 

In the Atherton Tablelands there are some wonderful curtain fig trees; most of my paintings are based on the beauty and wonder I’ve discovered in those. I feel elated and moved when I go into a rainforest or botanical gardens. My art work reflects my emotions in the moment I’m creating and if I feel happy, I paint in vibrant colours.

 

 

My solo exhibition this year is called “Branching Out” and the subject will be trees. These will include trees such as Snow Gum Trees with their beautiful bright striped bark all the way to fig trees in the rainforest.

 

 

In addition, many of my paintings will be of tree bark, featuring the different colours and patterns with leaves, gum nuts, seed pods and flowers of different trees also included. Living in the tropics of North Queensland Australia, I constantly draw inspiration from the wonderful environment around me and find plenty of extraordinary things to paint.