Donna

About Donna

A young woman gazes at her reflection in the bathroom mirror as she applies blush to her cheeks. This is one in a series of figurative paintings by Mary Pratt of a young model named Donna. The East Coast artist was best known for her colourful, realistic paintings of the domestic lives of women. By documenting objects and events in a household she transformed the ordinary—the banal into something special, memorable and meaningful. In this piece, the colour palette is in pastels—brown, blue, orange, yellow and red against a white backdrop.

"The reality comes first, and the symbol comes after. I see these things, and suddenly they become symbolic of life." Mary Pratt

Born in Fredericton, New Brunswick (1935-2018), Pratt was encouraged to draw and paint from an early age. She studied painting with the famed Alex Colville at Mount Alison University in NB. Named Companion of the Order of Canada in 1996, she received nine honorary doctorates from universities across Canada. Her work is found in public, corporate and private collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, The Art Gallery of Ontario and Canada House, UK.