May Art Show: Donna Redmond

Posted on May 5, 2022 Posted By: Achsah Carrier Categories: Art, News & Views

Homage to Umbrellas
Portraits of umbrellas at rest, in between rainstorms

I have had a lifelong interest in painting and drawing, and studied art at every opportunity, eventually graduating with a degree in Studio Art from Mary Baldwin College. I primarily work with oil on canvas, but I also enjoy watercolor and collage, as well as drawing in pencil and ink.

I began wanting to draw when I was very young. I loved the illustrations in children’s books and in the comic books. I loved coloring books, and an early memory I have was being on the floor with my coloring book, and wondering how the artist knew where to draw the lines. I started watching my mother as she was working, and saw how I might figure it out. Been working on that since then.

The inspiration for the umbrella paintings comes from a photo I took at the dentist’s office one day. It was a rainy day, and the coat rack held three red umbrellas – one of which was mine – and one pink striped umbrella with a broken rib. I loved the colors and the way the fabric curved when the umbrella was closed, and the way the stripes emphasized this. I showed the photo to my sister, and she thought it would make a good painting. I thought so too, so I began working on it.

The smaller drawings are the sketches that helped me develop the larger oil paintings. I took my time choosing the colors I would use, and I knew I wanted these to be big, colorful, graphic images. I drew on my childhood influences – illustration, comic books, coloring books – for the overall design. Following this train of thought, I decided to use the colors from that time – which for me is the ‘50s. My first thought was to use the red and turquoise of the ’57 Chevy, and it’s easy to see what happened next.

Donna Manfredi Redmond
Charlottesville, Virginia