Orange Hat
Oil on Claybord
14 x 18 in.
$1750
Available through the artist
Artist Donna Nyzio paints from life and knows well the working boats and coastal scenes prevalent in her work. Donna lives in Beaufort on the North Carolina Inner Banks. Beaufort, once known as “Fishtowne,” was a village for many years inhabited mainly by fisherman and whalers. Boats still abound.
“Each working boat is slightly different in design and use. In the uniqueness, each reminds me of a person. The windows are like eyes looking at you, so I paint the boats as one might a portrait, filled with an individual’s personality and story.”
Orange Hat portrays a typical coastal scene of a working man at the end of his day. Where there was chaos only moments before, the docks have grown quiet, soothing even. It is time spent cleaning and put everything in order for the next day.
From a painterly prospective, this painting composition creates an environment from solid shapes and soft brushwork to convey a relaxing atmosphere in an industrial location.
“It is a marvelous composition of interesting abstract shapes with just enough modeling to describe the scene,” said judge Steven J Levin when awarding Orange Hat an Excellence Award Winner at the 11th Biennial National Art Exhibition in Punta Gorda, Florida.
Donna uses the boats as large shapes which can be moved around a vast sea and sky to create spacial relationships, capture natural phenomena and build a story. She combines realistic images with abstract shapes and textures to create reflective and atmospheric paintings of coastal environments. Her compositions balance busy and quiet, textured and smooth, bright and faded, and provide a sense of place and history. The working watermen as subject matter has continued to grow for Donna as she observes this coastal way of life disappearing.
“I appreciate the work these guys do. In their wooden boats the owners and operators are independent, hardworking small business owners out on vast seas, under expansive skies. The scale of the surrounding environment easily dwarf the ships.”
Orange Hat was also juried into 2019 Conroe Art League 4th Annual National Invitational, Conroe, Texas, and the 2017 Laumeister Fine Art Competition, Bennington Center for the Arts, Vermont.
Donna holds a BFA in painting from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is a 2019 Alumni Emeritus Advisor for the Clark Hulings Fund for Visual Artists, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Recent Articles:
The Artist’s Road: March 2019, “Voices of Experience An Interview with Donna Nyzio”
ArtGuide Magazine, January 2019, “Working on Working Boats” Artist Bi-Annual National Artist Directory
Juried Exhibitions:
2019 Looking West: An Exhibition Highlighting Works by American Women Artists, Steamboat Art Museum, CO
2018, 2017& 2016 International Marine Art Exhibition, The Gallery at Mystic Seaport Museum, CT
2018, 2017 & 2016 Salmagundi Club Non-Members Exhibit, Salmagundi Club, NY
2018 33rd Bosque Art Classic, Bosque, TX
2018 & 2016 The WinterShow, GreenHill Center for NC Art, Invitational, Greensboro, NC
Gallery Representation:
Pinckney Simons Gallery, Beaufort, NC
Annapolis Marine Art Gallery, Annapolis, MD
Charles Fine Arts, Gloucester, MA
View more of Donna’s paintings and her calendar of events online.
Contact Donna at [email protected] or 252.732.0391 or via LinkedIn.
