“Kisses of Light” by Ron Donoughe

“Kisses of Light”

11 x 14 in.

oil on panel

Ron Donoughe has been painting the western Pennsylvania landscape for 30 years. He explores its rural and urban settings on a daily basis as he works in plein air throughout the seasons.

As curator V. Scott Diamond has noted, “Ron Donoughe has spent many years recording the often unassuming and occasionally magnificent landscape of the Allegheny Mountain region.  Approaching this landscape with the eyes of one who knows it like a brother, Donoughe renders it ineffably compelling.”

For an installation project Donoughe may take a year or more to complete 60-100 plein air paintings. In these exhibits the small paintings interact with each other, giving a textural overview of a particular time and place. Donoughe believes such in-depth projects allow for a more thoughtful understanding of his subject. It is a contemporary take on a traditional approach to painting.

“The affection of his gaze catches our attention, and through his brush, even the most mundane subjects become eminently worthy. This is the power of a great artist, and it is one that Donoughe clearly knows how to wield.”

“Ron Donoughe is one of those American artists intimately linked with the region where he lives,” noted writer Max Gillies, comparing Donoughe’s tie to that of others like Andrew Wyeth (the Brandywine Valley and Cushing, Maine), Winslow Homer (the Bahamas and coastal Maine) and Edward Hopper (New York City and Cape Cod).

Donoughe has completed murals for the Cambria County courthouse, has been a featured artist in the Pennsylvania governor’s residence, and recently his collection of 90 Pittsburgh Neighborhoods was acquired by the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.

His interest in plein air painting led to the formation of the Plein Air Painters of Western Pennsylvania. And his work can be found in many corporate, private, and public collections including The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, The University Museum at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

A ‘Today’s Masters’ section featured article titled, “Looking Local: Ron Donoughe’s Painting of Western Pennsylvania” recently appeared in the October issue of Fine Art Connoisseur magazine.

Ron Donoughe has also published three books about his work.  For information, please contact the artist at [email protected]. View more of Ron’s work at http://donoughe.com/.


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Andrew Webster is the former Editor of Fine Art Today and worked as an editorial and creative marketing assistant for Streamline Publishing. Andrew graduated from The University of North Carolina at Asheville with a B.A. in Art History and Ceramics. He then moved on to the University of Oregon, where he completed an M.A. in Art History. Studying under scholar Kathleen Nicholson, he completed a thesis project that investigated the peculiar practice of embedded self-portraiture within Christian imagery during the 15th and early 16th centuries in Italy.

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