ARTIST STATEMENT
"The fox know many things: the hedgehog knows one big thing."
- Greek Poet: Archilochus
Photo by Jan Karon
People ask me, "What do you paint?" To me, it's not what I paint, but why I paint.
The painter and art critic, Roger Fry, once asked a little girl how she set about drawing. She replied, "First I have a little 'think' and then I put a line around it."
That is the great beauty in children's art. They are serious about what they do, and they paint with an innocent eye not what they see, but what they know. Their emotions become the binder in the paint as they tell their stories.
Every person has a story to tell. Through my paintings, I am telling mine. My intuitive paintings are about the spirit...not about religion, but rather about consciousness, about being "mindful" of the connectedness of all people, and all of nature, the perfect model of shape and color.
As I weave my stories in shape, color and pattern, I invite you to see in my painting your story. If we can put these together in some fashion, perhaps we can discover, like the hedgehog, the one big thing.
Photo by Jan Karon
Donna Ernest is a contemporary painter and former president of Donna Ernest Interiors in Jacksonville. FL. She received a BA in Art History from Hollins University, a BFA from the University of North Florida and was an allied member of the American Association of Interior Designers. She has participated in group shows and solo shows in Florida and Virgnia. Donna's paintings cover a wide range of interest from narrative, to traditional, to abstract. As an avid gardener, her latest series, "Petals", is about seeing flowers in a different way. Her work is mostly oil on canvas which she fills with bright, bold color.