BIOGRAPHY​​

Donna McGinnis was born in Spokane, Washington.  McGinnis grew up in an artistic family.  Her mother was an artist, her grandmother a musician and her father a photographer.  Drawing came naturally to her as she had very vivid memories of admiring her father’s black and white photography.  These silvery prints inspired McGinnis.  Through his love affair with the still image, McGinnis learned composition, chiaroscuro (light and dark tonality), form and line, in essence the basics of formal art theory.  McGinnis had a childhood babysitter and mentor who taught her and her two sisters art lessons.  Later McGinnis went onto major in art in high school and was later awarded her Bachelors in Arts at Washington State University.  In 1963, McGinnis moved to California and settled in San Francisco.  With a degree in graphic design, McGinnis soon found employment as a color consultant for Fiberboard Co.  Here she selected interior and exterior color palette for housing developments.  While at Fiberboard McGinnis met and married her husband of 40 years John McGinnis. During her spare time that she pursued her own artistic aspirations of painting full time.  With dedication, McGinnis began selling more and more until soon her dream of becoming a professional artist became a reality.

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McGinnis paints in the genre of landscape.  Yet this definition is too simple in its description.  Her works are contemporary and modern in composition.  The horizon determines the mood and narrative that will develop.  With the swirling of brushwork and layering of glazes, McGinnis creates her signature style of softness and a painting that glows from within.  In each landscape, McGinnis paints skies that are both ethereal and realistic.  As a child, McGinnis remembers watching the sky with its changing cloud formations.  In each cloud could imagine a transformation of this object into a child’s fantasy.  Even more importantly, clouds became for McGinnis the beginning elements of abstraction.