Donna Chudnow
Painter based in Toronto, Ontario
ABOUT
My paintings are a portrayal of the lifelong influence that nature plays in my life. My passion for landscape art emerged from my love and wonder of nature. My reverence of nature evolved from going to childhood summer day camp outside of Winnipeg and spending 15 fabulous summers at a camp, camping and canoeing throughout Lake of the Woods, and in parts of Northern Ontario. The photos, memories and feelings of those formative years are essential to my art. Nature always played an important part in my life- but it wasn’t until my mid 40’s that I found my visual voice through painting. My paintings reveal the sheer beauty and glory of nature and the joy and comfort that I feel being both a spectator and a participant. I took landscape art lessons at the AGO Gallery School in Toronto, from 2006-2010 and attended OCADU (2nd year) on a part-time basis from 2012-2014. Since 2015, on most days, I can be found painting in my studio at ProjectArt in Toronto, Ontario.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My paintings are a ‘reactive abstract’ portrayal of the lifelong influence that nature plays in my life. The places in the paintings are snapshots of memories in my mind and photos from which form the line drawing of the picture. The feelings associated with those memories are represented by the physical application of painting, pouring, spraying, splashing, dripping and layering of acrylic paints, inks, enamels, polymers and water onto the canvas. “Reactive abstract,” is the technique where each step is a reaction to a previous application of materials placed on the canvas. The overlapping of these materials in this technique is essential to my art. The journey of my paintings is, like in life, that everything is interconnected, and that who we are is the colorful layering of these experiences.
Website: donnachudnow.com
Instagram: @donna.chudnow