About

Donnersmith is a painter living and working in Portland, Maine, USA.  Born and raised in the American heartland, Donnersmith has lived exclusively in American East Coast cities (Providence, Boston, New York, Portland) as an adult. This decades-long immersion in the worn, gritty world of aging urban landscapes informs and shapes his aesthetic outlook. He started painting as a child, then shifted to a successful career as an architect before turning back to paint. He was educated at Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design, Pratt Institute, Harvard Graduate School of Design and Maine College of Art and Design. 

 

Donnersmith is focused on the intersection of rich, rough textures with constrained palettes.Starting with two or three colors and using wide-ranging techniques and layering to create complex textures, he evokes a range of emotions such as sadness, joy, sorrow, doom, exaltation, etc. The works are abstract, minimalist and visceral, strongly emotional and inviting touch. Donnersmith continuously explores the possibilities of different media, including paint, collage, and additions such as sand, wax, rope, string, and paper or fabric scraps.

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In an earlier phase of his practice, Donnersmith spent about a year exploring what he calls GEOforms - paintings inspired by satellite photos of places he'll never visit: large-scale human interventions in the landscape - vast farms, mines, ports, etc. 

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