Featured Artist Donna Streisfeld

Pastel artist Donna Streisfeld shares a delightful collection of paintings filled with life and memories. See more of her portfolio by visiting her website.

 

 

I have always loved going to art museums, having lived in New York City through college. I went to the High School of Music and Art now called The La Guardia School for the Arts where I was a music major. In college, I took a drawing class. In the early years of parenthood, I took ceramic classes at a community art center.

 

 

I truly began my fine art education in my 60’s. In 2014, after a trip to Paris and Giverny, I decided to begin watercolor classes. It was something that I always wanted to try. At this point, art was still a hobby.

 

 

Right before the pandemic I had taken a few pastel classes and fell in love with the medium. The month before the pandemic, I discovered pastel artist Alain Picard through a friend, and decided to sign up for one of his online classes. I bought gloves and masks to work with pastels just before the need for those items was necessary. Since I couldn’t continue my job as a harp therapist at a local hospital at that time, I painted every day and haven’t stopped. I have to say that the internet and the pandemic catapulted me into becoming a serious artist.

 

 

Our yearly trips to Maine inspired me to paint landscapes, but now I have fallen in love with portraiture and figurative work as well.

 

 

I am in love with the process of creating visually on paper. The many stages of a painting’s development feel like a meditative process to me. From the underpainting in watercolor or pastel to the layering of pastel colors to bringing the image to life excites me. The soft pastel medium affords me with many opportunities to explore drawing, color layering, etc. And, of course one can never have enough pastels!

 

 

I’m mostly a studio painter, but have explored painting en plein air as well. I paint from photos, still life setups, and live models.

 

 

I’m very inspired by nature, particularly, trees and rocky shores. I’m also inspired by my grandchildren and children in general.

 

 

At the present time I still take art classes such as life drawing to enhance my skills. My goals are to continue experimenting with mixed media and pastels as well as paint figures in the environment.

 

Want to stay current on cutting edge business articles from Artsy Shark, plus artist features, and an invitation to the next Call for Artists? Click below to sign up for our twice-monthly email. You’ll get all this plus opportunities and special offers that you can’t get anywhere else!