Donovan Fitzgerald: February 2014

Thank you for visiting my blog. I will attempt to post new work on this blog fairly often so please continue to check back for more updates. Below I have posted several images from my recent portfolio along with some basic info about each piece and a few in depth explanations of my vision for certain paintings. Please enjoy.

Sincerely,

Donovan Fitzgerald

donovanfitzgerald.com
donovanfitzgeraldart@gmail.com
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"To End an Age"

Oil on Canvas, 54x36 inches

This piece originally grew out of my desire to paint a figure surrounded by the local desert landscape of Southern Nevada. After completing my plein air studies of the landscape, I spent some time drawing with my niece, who was to pose for the piece. At this point my concept grew out of her transition from early childhood into what might be called early or pre adolescence. In the painting she symbolically leaves behind her little rag doll, a remnant of her youth. Her gaze is proud, and strong, yet subtly fearful and saddened at the loss of childhood.

"Eve and the Fall of Man"

30x40 inches, Oil on Canvas

This piece is my attempt to portray the story from Genesis in a very iconic and subtly allegorical composition. You see Eve, fallen over a heavy, solitary stone, with the bitten apple lying beside her hand. The landscape which she inhabits is, symbolically, more arid and lonely that one would expect from a "Garden". From behind the dark mass of trees, the oncoming storm approaches.

"Poppies" (Commissioned Work)

approx 40x60 inches, Oil on Canvas

This painting was a commissioned work. It was loosely based on a design which I had previously conceived, and was altered to fit the client's feelings/tastes. I hope this piece will have sparks of romance, but clouded with an air of melancholy. Poppies have traditionally been used as a symbol of both sleep and death, I want this symbolism to bring a certain ambiguity to the final composition.

"Artist's Wife in Black" (in progress)

26x42 inches, Oil on Canvas

When I paint my wife I feel as though, in some sense, I am also painting my self portrait. Through her lovely face, I see my children, myself, and our long history together. The portraits of my wife are among the most deeply personal of my works. You will notice an underlying melancholy in her expression, my wife has a tendency to become very shy and introverted while sitting for her portrait, and I wouldn't want to change that about her. This fact, that the sitter, likely unintentionally, influences and almost defines the direction of the painting, is one of my favorite aspects of figurative and especially portrait painting.

"Family Concert" (Commissioned Work)

10x5 feet, Oil on Canvas

This was a commission for a collector and amazingly talented musician and performer, Frankie Moreno. The concept is simply a family of musicians, around a harpsichord, playing music together. Frankie and his family actually posed for the painting as well, so that made this a very fun and personal piece.

"Young Woman draped in Black"

20x30 inches, Oil on Canvas

This piece is, visually, very emblematic of my stylistic love for baroque painting. I very much enjoy the use of a thick, heavy, black atmosphere, falling away behind the soft and gentle figure emerging from the cloud of pitch behind. These types of paintings speak volumes to me, through their simplicity and subtlety.

"Orpheus and Eurydice" (Commissioned ceiling painting)

Approx 28x18 feet, acrylic directly on ceiling

This piece is based upon the wonderfully tragic story, told within Ovid's epic poem Metamorphoses, of Orpheus' ultimately and sadly unsuccessful journey into the underworld to save his beloved, Eurydice. I could explain each figure in the piece but that would take a few paragraphs, so I will refrain. I will just say this piece is very much designed around my personal interpretation of Ovid's story and how it affected me.

"Artist's wife, The Melancholic"

20x24 inches, Oil on Canvas

another portrait of my wife

"The Silver Pot"

14x22 inches, Oil on Canvas

"Winter Still life"

14x22 inches, Oil on Canvas

This is a very simple yet personal still life for me. This is plainly winter in the Fitzgerald home. in the composition you see apples from our trees, the dead leaves of those trees strewn across the table, a Charles Dickens novel, and a pint of Guinness. Winter in my home displayed in a painting.

Ceiling Fresco, Commission

approx 45x25 feet, acrylic over fresh plaster

"Callan, oil sketch"

12x16 inches, Oil on Canvas

This is a quick study I painted of my beautiful daughter, Callan.

Live Chalk Painting

"The Storm" after Bouguereau

I am often invited to shows, all over the West coast, where I paint, in chalk on the street, reproductions of great master's work. In this case I am reproducing a work by my favorite french painter, William Bouguereau of the 19th Century.