A Portrait of the Artist: Donna McGee

Many admire Picasso for his way of looking. Donna McGee believes he looks at things in a different way, and that this is immediately obvious in his work. She also meditates on Rothko's simplicity and is drawn to Kandinsky's ever fleeting depth and movement.

Her upcoming show at the Foundry Gallery in Washington, D.C. is titled "Celebrate the Child in You" and incorporates children's artwork next to her own.

"Most adults will draw at an 8-year-old level throughout their lives," said McGee. "This is because teachers don't use art in the curriculum to let children keep growing. Instead, kids become self-conscious about making art and start to feel like they are not very good at it with the passage of time."

Like many others in the early 1960's, McGee got the message that you can't make any money being an artist. She enrolled at Goddard College in Vermont and then at Penn State University in Pennsylvania and received a Masters degree in teaching with a specialization in early childhood education.

Upon graduating she was hired to create a program for a community college in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The program would be arts-based and serve as a child care center for the school. It also became a lab school for student-teachers to complete their practica.

"The kids had access to all kinds of art materials," said McGee who attributes her own development as an artist to being exposed to crafts materials from a very young age by her father.

"They used drawing and other ways of looking to interpret regular lessons through art," continued McGee who emphasizes looking as fundamental. "For instance, they students might do an exercise in which they have to show how the sun is helpful to growing plants. They demonstrate that they understand the concept by drawing a flower pointing to the sun."

McGee was involved with this program for four years. She also conducted various early childhood workshops and trainings in Harrisburg and worked as an art teacher in a community college there before moving to Bethesda, Maryland thirteen years ago.

"Children's art has always been an inspiration to me," she said. "The circle is a universal symbol and almost every child in the world will start by drawing it. Then they start adding lines to it, and it becomes a person."

McGee has compiled drawings from her own children and grandchildren, as well as pieces she has collected from childcare centers for her exhibit at the Foundry.

Her own piece "Celebrate" represents an exploratory phase for McGee who has been exercising her inner child to learn by looking.

"I am completely intuitive in my process. I paint abstract pieces, and my painting comes from within. As I'm putting broad strokes of color and layering them on the canvas, new colors just explode," said the artist who plays with color and texture to create a sense of depth and time in her pieces. "For 'Celebrate,' which is a large 60" x 48" painting, I started out by layering pumice on the canvas and then worked various colors into it. My colors used to be earthy, but last year I started using blues. This painting incorporates blues, magentas and copper tone. It was exciting to work on it, and it will be exciting to show it."

McGee also says she has been experimenting with ways to bring light through her paintings by mixing bright yellows and greenish yellows into the base layers of a painting to allow them to be illuminated from behind.

When asked about how she names her pieces, she stumbles:

"I called the piece 'Celebrate' because when I looked at it...well, I don't really want to add names...I thought of bursts of fireworks, and it looked like a celebration. But I really don't want to label my paintings and leave it up to the viewer to decide."

"Celebrate the Child in You" opens June 29, 2011 and runs through July 31, 2011. An artist reception will be held on July 1 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. McGee will also be holding a children's art workshop on July 9, 2011 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Foundry Gallery.

McGee did not always paint abstracts. She started when she began studying under Helen Corning at the Yellow Barn Studio and Gallery. Although Corning no longer teaches there, McGee and several of her former classmates still gather on Tuesdays to paint together. The group, called the Outloud Painters Group, also shows together.

Currently, the Outloud Painters Group is showing at the River Road Unitarian Church. In October of 2010, the group showed at the Arts Barn in Gaithersburg and in July 2011 will be showing at Glenview Mansion in Rockville.

McGee, who is a member of the Foundry Gallery, has been in quite a few other shows. She participated in a group show at the Agora Gallery in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood and received a Best in Show award through the Harrisburg Art Association in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In September 2011, she will be showing her work at the Ratner Museum in Bethesda, Maryland.

When she is not painting, Donna McGee teaches a college-level course online for Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

"I teach how to use the arts, including music, dance and visual art, to foster creativity," said the artist whose course focuses on incorporating art in early childhood education.

To learn more about Donna McGee, click here.