This year is my my 20th year creating portraits for the St. Louis Blues management and team.

​Back in 1998 I was first asked to create Sports Portraits for the players celebrating their special achievements and to celebrate their little ones.

Below is a portrait presentation from the 2017/2018 season.

I am honored to create portraits for the Blues. It is a highlight in my career as an artist! I can't believe twenty years have gone by so quickly! 

You know, my favorite part being an artist is all the interesting and wonderful people that I have been blessed to meet!  

​Thank you St. Louis Blues!  Enjoy this amazing time!  Go Blues!!



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People are often curious as to how a portrait starts and progresses. Sometimes I'll show video clips of a portrait progression on Facebook. I also like to sketch live so that people who might be interested in a portrait can watch a little bit of the process. As part of the team at OA Gallery I have the opportunity, sometimes to sketch while at the gallery.  It's a great perk and fun way to catch up on some portrait drawings. Stop by the gallery for a visit.

Contact Me to find out when I'll be at the gallery next.

Wow! An art lesson at the Saint Louis Art Museum was a unique opportunity and treat for my drawing students!  As an art teacher my hope is that my students have fun while learning!  So I arranged a visit to the Prints and Drawings Study Room.  Visiting the Study Room was a rare occasion to get a close look at Master work dating back to the 1700's!  From there we went on to the main galleries to create sketches from two Zorn portraits. We all had a blast!

17 works on paper were chosen from the Art Museum's collection.  Many of the works were unframed, matted only, and amazingly, not under glass.  Magnifying glasses were supplied for closer inspection of the beautiful marks and details!

St. Louis Art Museum

The Prints and Study Room
​was a pure delight to us all!
We saw works from Ingres, Renoir, Childe Hassam, Berthe Morisot and others.

Beautiful pastel by Mary Cassatt

Pastel painting created in 1753 by Maurice Quentin de la Tour

Etching by Anders Zorn

Questions answered by the Study Room Manager, Heather Hughes, were so helpful!  

Great information! 

From the Study Room we sketched from the Anders Zorn portraits.

 We divided up between the Zorn portraits, Lucy Turner Joy and Halsey Cooley Ives.  Mr Ives was the first director of the St. Louis Art Museum.

Sketching Lucy Turner Joy by Anders Zorn
Great fun!

To top it off we gathered for a delicious relaxing lunch at the Museum's Panorama Restaurant!
​What a perfect day!

As an art instructor, it is my hope to share my excitement for drawing and to create fun learning experiences for my students.  

We definitely will be visiting the museum again! 
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Thought I'd share with you a little bit about how I approach my oil painting for a portrait. I like to start at the focal point, which for a portrait, is always the eyes.

Just as I approach my drawing by shapes, I tell my drawing students to notice shapes and to draw the shapes. In painting I do the same and attack the focal point the same way, looking for the color shapes.        
(Please excuse the phone pics)

Apply the color shapes one next to the other.  Where the color shapes meet, blend softly.

I paint wet-into-wet one section at a time.

It is helpful to lay in some color in the background that can be used to softly create "soft" or blurred edges while the paint is wet.  Some edges should fade or gently blend into the value of the background.

Glazes are added to brighten the color of the cheeks, nose and ears.  The middle part of the face has more color in it than the top or bottom the face.

The white of the eye is never white, only the highlight will be white.

All done!

For Marie Donato's Oil Painting Classes offered - click below.

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​A constant love of mine, and an almost lost love, is oil painting, but I am happy to share with you now, that OIL is back in my repertoire and I am loving it!

This portrait commission painting was the catalyst to get my can in gear.  Such an adorable face was my challenge!  I was so taken by the quality of her soft, young, porcelain-like skin.  I knew that achievement would be the goal as well as captivating those beautiful blue eyes.

You may be wondering why oil painting seemed almost lost. Well...when I started my professional painting career my art studio was directly off my bedroom. The problem was a practical one, using oils and turpentine or mineral spirits then - was quite smelly. There are much improved products available now.

So I went the watercolor route for my career, then followed by adding pastel painting.   I have enjoyed teaching and sharing what I've learned in both watercolor and pastel. 

If you are interested in commissioning a portrait, call Marie, 314-409-7740.  For more information on Marie's portraits check out the FAQ page below.

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VLADIMIR TARASENKO
MAC Sports Personality of the Year
​2016
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YADIER MOLINA
MAC Sports Personality of the Year
​2017

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Sign up for ​Marie's Art Class information for future classes offered.

​This was my Portrait Drawing Demonstration for the class "Drawing on Toned Paper" held at OA Gallery.  I was using black charcoal for the darker values and white charcoal for the highlights .

Here the dark values are established in the drawing.  In a portrait the eyes will always have your darkest dark in the pupil of the eye and at the lashline. 

A white charcoal pencil is used to show the highlights.

This is the stage where values are checked and corrected. They help to show the three dimensional quality in the drawing.

The portrait demo is finished and ready to be put in a frame!

​The portrait is complete! It can be viewed at OA Gallery in Kirkwood, MO.

Look at these beautiful drawings!  Everyone did a fantastic job!  What a great class!

Would you like information about my art classes?  Check out my classes here on my website.

Or  Sign up for my newsletter for new classes as they are scheduled. 
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Here are recent drawing videos that were taken as I was finishing up the portrait details.  I wanted to share with you my love for drawing today.

​These drawings were completed on Strathmore Bristol Vellum paper.   To finish these portraits I used General's charcoal and graphite pencil along with powdered graphite.  The most exhilarating part of my job as an artist is getting those beautiful eyes looking back at me!  I truly love being a portrait artist and am very thankful to God that I am able to be an artist.

If you have any questions just let me know.  Thank you for watching.  
​Have a great day!