I am an artist/teacher living in San Francisco. I painted in oil for 35 years before I developed an extreme allergy to the oil. Most of my paintings are plein air, alla prima, and in oil. It is within the last 2 years that I have very reluctantly switched to acrylic.

I am hooked on painting outdoors whenever possible, Since I never know what a new location will offer I travel to each site with at least three different size canvases from which to choose. After selecting a view, a composition is roughly sketched in with soft charcoal. When I was using oil paint I began painting the shadows first with a thin mixture of Prussian blue and burnt umber, working the entire canvas at once. This process is followed by adding blocks of color, gradually building up the composition and culminating with adding in dramatic highlights. At the moment the I am just trying to get the feel of the acrylics.

Here is a quote a critic wrote about my work. (I will insert his name when I find it!): “Donna Mankus’ landscapes are well within the time-honored tradition of California pictorialism, from the days of the great 19th Century Beirstadts and Hills to the 20th Century Adams’ and into the 21st Century with Wayne Thiebaud. Californian mountains, valleys and seashores have inspired artists like no other chunk of geography.

Her pictures are intensely personal, and that, paradoxically, makes them all the more accessible. Structure is so strong that a viewer willing to give them time will find the pictures showing him or her the beauties of California for the first time.

There are no people, buildings or events in these paintings. No message, no politics, no sentimentality, no nature-worshipping wildness. Yes, there is the pictorial tradition implicit in every brush stroke, but it never intrudes. Instead, because of the artist’s vigor and the physicality of her pictures, artist and viewer communicate directly, and that is the joy of painting.

“The experience of creating a paintings is separate to me from seeing how the finished piece turns out. While painting, there is nothing in the world for me but the view, canvas, paint, and the brushes in front of me,” explains Donna. “My life is complete. I need nothing more than to move paint around with my brushes. Sometimes I look at my work and wonder ‘Did I really paint this?’ Those are usually the best, most cohesive paintings I’ve done.”

I sold my first drawing when I was 13, and though largely self taught I have a BA in Drawing and Painting, from San Francisco State University. I would like to continue teaching art to Middle School students. My work has been in one and two person shows. I seek gallery representation.