ARTS & EDUCATION
Rediscovering Art w ritte n by SH E RI L BE N NE T T T UR NE R photo g raphed by K R I S DE C K E R
Mega-talented in multi-mediums. That’s the words I would use to describe local artist, Donna Traynham, who uses pencil, pastels, acrylics and oils to create beautiful lifelike renderings. With a keen natural eye for composition, color, and subject matter, this artist seems to be adept in any art medium she chooses. But what’s really amazing to me is that Donna only recently rediscovered her passion for - as well as her abundant talent in - art. “I loved art when I was in grade school - up until about the fifth grade,” Donna explains. “At the time, my teacher had me doing large murals on butcher block paper to decorate the halls at school. But, because she didn’t want me to miss any class time, she kept pushing me to hurry up and finish. It put so much pressure on me that art just wasn’t fun anymore. After that I didn’t want to paint for a long time.” A long time ended up being, well, a really, really long
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time. “I had always known and felt that I wanted to get back into art,” Donna says, “but it wasn’t until January of 2005, after my sons Richey and Kevin were grown and out of the house, that I decided to do something for myself. That’s when I started taking classes in pencil, pastels, and acrylics with well-known local artist Rebecca Penland Reynolds.” After about a year of classes that reawakened her natural talent, Donna felt confident enough to showcase her work at the Greer Oktoberfest. There her pencil and pastel portraits of friends and family received a warm response from the community. One admirer, Pam Dangelo, a gifted local oil painter and teacher, encouraged Donna to study oils with her. “I found oil painting to be just as easy as pastels and acrylics,” Donna says. “It takes a little longer to mix the paints and get the shadowing and light just right, but I’ve really enjoyed working with oils.” As Donna progressed, she
ARTS & EDUCATION
soon realized that art had become more than just a “hobby” to her. “It got to be so much fun that I began to think about taking early retirement from my regular job to do nothing but paint,” Donna admits. “I didn’t know it at the time but my husband, Rick, didn’t like that idea too much at first. Financially, he didn’t think we were ready for that yet. He always told me to do whatever I needed to do.” Donna was also encouraged along the way by friends and neighbors. “Whenever I finished a piece, I would show them my work and they’d say ‘you need to do this full time.’ Since I was already getting commission work, the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. So that’s what I did. “ Along with commissioned pieces, Donna has recently been working on a series of portraits portraying her aunts and uncles on her mother’s side. “It’s a large family with ten brothers and sisters. All but one are still living and they range in age from about
72 to 92. I wanted to do something special for them, so I have been doing portraits in pencil of each of them, and giving them the originals plus prints for all their children. It’s so great to see the reactions when I do a portrait of someone. Everyone is so thrilled to have such a personal memento.” As well as commemorating loved ones, Donna has plans to do several series based on the places near and dear to her heart. “I’ve just completed a colored pencil sketch for my two sisters of the old barns that my late-father built behind my childhood home in Pendleton, SC. Now I’m trying to go around my hometown and take pictures of historic buildings like the old St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, The Farmers Hall and others to work from.” Eventually she would also like to depict in art form Mac’s Drive-In and the Old Stone Church around Clemson, as well as Suber’s Corn Mill and the old historic buildings of downtown Greer. Not one to rest while there are other art mediums to master, Donna has now started dabbling in watercolors, creating exquisite color-saturated paintings of flowers. “I love to capture things that I think are pretty, like flowers and things in my yard,” she admits. She also has plans to exhibit her work at Artisphere, the international art festival held in Greenville each year. Her joy for art now renewed, Donna enthusiastically encourages her two young granddaughters, Langley (8) and Avery (6), as well as others, to discover - or even rediscover - their creative side. “Don’t be afraid to just get in there and try,” she says. “You’ll love it.” d Some of Donna Traynham’s art work is on display at the Dangelo Art Studio at 62 St. Mark Road in Taylors. For more information, please call the studio at (864) 297-8618 or Donna at (864) 979-0244.
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