Arts & Entertainment

Patch Short: A Quick Talk With Artist Doreen Donovan (Brandon Winners at Strawberry Festival Art Show)

Artist and teacher Doreen Donovan was finishing up an art class at Center Place when she discussed a piece of work she had with her, which had just won a red ribbon at the 2011 Florida Strawberry Festival.

Three Brandon artists in the professional watercolor category took home the top three prizes at the 2011 Florida Strawberry Festival Parade in Plant City.

“I was excited when they called me and told me,” said Doreen Donovan, a board member of the Brandon League of Fine Arts, the Greater Brandon Arts Council and the .

Donovan placed second in the professional watercolor category, with her piece, entitled, “Let’s Saddle Up,” featuring bridles, including bits, reigns and curb chains.

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“It’s an honor to be recognized,” Donovan said. “Whenever you enter an art show it’s always nice that you win a prize, let alone get accepted into the art show to begin with. I was ecstatic to be chosen as a winner and I was really happy that other members of the were chosen for ribbons in their categories as well."

In the professional watercolor category alone, Meletha Everett took home to first-place ribbon and , the third-place ribbon. Everett’s work appears on a giant piece at then entrance to the Brandon Parkway, off Providence Road.

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Donovan had just finished teaching an art class at Center Place when she talked about her piece, “Let’s Saddle Up."

“When you look at it, it looks like leather and the metal shows, it’s shiny. I wanted it to look dimensional,” Donovan said. “I work at it until I like it.”

Donovan, who teaches painting to young artists at Center Place, has been painting watercolors for 10 years. She also paints in acrylics.

“Watercolors I like because it’s more challenging for me,” she said. “Mistakes are harder to correct. You don’t know if you’re going to do a dry piece or wet the paper first. Then you look at the subject your painting to see if you want it tighter or looser. Sometimes water spots happen where you don’t want them to and there can even be defects in the paper. And sometimes, after you spend so many hours on the piece, you find out that you don’t really like it.”

All of which makes for nerve-wracking work at times, so why keep with it? 

“Because it’s a challenge,” Donovan said. “All of it makes it that much more interesting.”

Brandon Winners at the 2011 Florida Strawberry Festival Art Show:

Professional Watercolor — 

  • Meletha Everett, first place
  • Doreen Donovan, second place
  • Roxanne Tobaison, third place

Professional Graphics/Mixed Media — 

  • Tim Mandese, fourth place

Adult Miniature Art — 

  • Gunni Price, first place
  • Carlene Earl, second place
  • Peggy Little, third place
  • Meletha Everett, fourth place

Amateur Watercolor — 

  • Jody MacNeil, first place

 


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