About

“Art is Life. Life is Art. It gets all mixed up and through each other.”
~ Donna Welsh

Largely self-taught, Donna received formal training at York Academy of Arts. She also holds a degree in Psychology from Albright College and is certified in several modalities in the Natural Health field. After operating a commercial studio early in her career she realized her true love was painting, although she still pursues graphic design, especially typography.

Donna has exhibited in many places over the years and her work hangs in collections both in the U.S. and abroad. She is a current recipient of York Art Association’s Rottler Award of Excellence.

Donna has taught adult drawing and painting classes for over forty years, and most recently taught painting Zoom classes for the Office of Aging’s Virtual Senior Center. She worked many years facilitating therapeutic art classes for those with serious mental illness and advanced dementia. She has just retired from teaching and is currently focused on her own work.

Donna divides divides her time among her art, natural health interests and her family. She currently resides in what she likes to call her Hobbit House in Lancaster County.

Statement

I am a multi-media artist, living and working in a small town located amidst the beautiful farmlands of Pennsylvania. I mainly work in oils, acrylic and encaustic, although you never know what medium you might find and the end of my hand. My work varies from realism to impressionism to abstract.

I love what I do and get excited about creating textures, both real and illusory.

Capturing the extraordinary within the ordinary is one of my favorite things and often, my paintings will invite the viewer inside them. I see imperfection as a natural part of life and sometimes deliberately place flaws to speak to that. My portraiture embraces the essence of a person rather than just likeness and my abstracts frequently have a mysterious nature.

A lover of puzzles, mystery and intrigue, I am fond of bringing it into my work. Look for flaws, look for puzzles. You just might find them!