MARIE DONATO
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A Little Boy's Joy When He Sees His Own Portrait

12/2/2019

 
It's not just the grownups who get excited at a portrait reveal.
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Adorable twin boys had so much fun seeing portraits of themselves for the first time. Their reaction was full of joy. This little guy recognized himself immediately. I was amazed we caught their delight on camera! So cute!!
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His brother's reaction was equally adorable.
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It was a happy experience for all.
Contact Marie to commission a portrait of your child.

My 20th Anniversary Creating St. Louis Blues Portraits

4/24/2019

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20 Years with the Blues!
2019 is my 20th year creating portraits for the St. Louis Blues!  
I am fortunate to celebrate a special anniversary working with the Blues, in a year they won the Stanley Cup - the first in franchise history!  


​My 20th Anniversary
1999 - 2019 

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2019 marks my 20th year creating portraits for the St. Louis Blues management and team, celebrating their special achievements and to celebrate their little ones.

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Portrait presentation from the 2017/2018 season.
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Kelly Chase, 30x20 in. watercolor
You know, my favorite part being an artist is all the interesting and wonderful people that I have been blessed to meet! 
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Craig Berube, St. Louis Blues Head Coach, 30x20 in. watercolor
These are a few of the many portraits I was fortunate to create.
Thank you St. Louis Blues Management and Team!  
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​Enjoy this amazing time!

Congratulations Stanley Cup Winners!!

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Let's keep in touch - sign up for my newsletter, 
to hear about more news, events and classes!
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Drawing and Sketching at Heartland Art Club (formerly OA Gallery)

3/11/2019

 
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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.

Drawing Class at the Museum

6/3/2018

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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!
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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!
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St. Louis Art Museum
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The Prints and Study Room
​was a pure delight to us all!
We saw works from Ingres, Renoir, Childe Hassam, Berthe Morisot and others.
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Beautiful pastel by Mary Cassatt
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Pastel painting created in 1753 by Maurice Quentin de la Tour
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Etching by Anders Zorn
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Questions answered by the Study Room Manager, Heather Hughes, were so helpful!  
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Great information! 
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From the Study Room we sketched from the Anders Zorn portraits.
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 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.
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Sketching Lucy Turner Joy by Anders Zorn
Great fun!
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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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For information on future classes offered
check out my Art Classes page.

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​www.mariedonato.com





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Oil Portrait Painting

2/23/2018

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Portrait Oil Painting: step-by-step

1/20/2018

9 Comments

 
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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.
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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)
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Apply the color shapes one next to the other.  Where the color shapes meet, blend softly.
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I paint wet-into-wet one section at a time.
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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.
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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.
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The white of the eye is never white, only the highlight will be white.
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All done!
For Marie Donato's Oil Painting Classes offered - click below.
oil painting classes



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Oil Portrait Painting

1/13/2018

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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. 
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Oil painting is once again in my studio and I've since added oil painting lessons to my classes offered. Learn more about my art class information page.
Class Info
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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.
Portrait Questions




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MAC: Sports PERSONALITY of the year portraits

1/8/2018

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MISSOURI ATHLETIC CLUB
​SPORTS PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR PORTRAITS

To honor each recipient, the MISSOURI ATHLETIC CLUB has a portrait drawing created of the Sports Personality of the Year.

As a professional artist, I am thankful and honored to be creating the Sports Personality of the Year Portraits for the MAC!! Thank you very much to the Missouri Athletic Club for giving me this opportunity.
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Vladimir Tarasenko
MAC Sports Personality of the Year
​2016
Since 1970, sports fans have been gathering at the Missouri Athletic Club to honor the annual Sport's Personality of the Year.  
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The MAC Sport’s Perso
nality of the Year Dinner, was created by Jack Buck who acted as Master of Ceremonies for the first 32 dinners. The  event is now in his name.

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The list of some past recipients are: Bob Gibson (1970), Whitey Herzog (1982), Jackie Joyner-Kersey (1988), Brett Hull (1990) and Kurt Warner (2000)... to Vladimir Taresenko (2016) and Yadier Molina (2017). 
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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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portrait on toned paper

7/6/2017

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

Drawing Class: Steps for drawing on toned paper

3/27/2017

 
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​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 .
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Learning to draw on toned paper using black and white charcoal, helps greatly in understanding value tones.

Here are some of the steps in drawing a portrait on toned paper.  The drawing is started lightly in the beginning. When the likeness of the eyes are getting closer then I'll start to establish more of the darks. Until then I keep the pencil marks light in case I need to erase. 
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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. 

Using toned paper instead of white paper helps you to obtain your darkest darks and lightest lights while letting the paper be your midtone value.  
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A white charcoal pencil is used to show the highlights.
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This is the stage where values are checked and corrected. They help to show the three dimensional quality in the drawing.
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The portrait demo is finished and ready to be put in a frame!
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​The portrait is complete! It can be viewed at the Galleries at Heartland in Kirkwood, MO.
Working on toned paper is a beautiful and classical way to draw, which dates back to the Renaissance.
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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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  • ARTWORK
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