Margaret Donharl

Inspired by nature and design, Margaret Donharl creates colorful acrylic paintings – layering symbolism with realism.

Margaret’s process often involves applying paint and glazes onto recycled hardwood doors using her own hand cut stencils. Building layers of luminous color, pattern, and organic forms creates a complex visual weave and provides textural backgrounds for her paintings. Early in the process, Margaret works more intuitively with paint, adding and subtracting many elements to experiment with imagery. She’s interested in recording the accidents and erasures in the process and remains open to the unexpected, the surprising. 

While not attempting a literal portrayal, Margaret always includes realistic images of animals, birds, flowers and landscape in the final layers.  She’s exploring nature as elegant symbols of beauty, of fragility and impermanence. The animals and plants are idealized, not individuals. Their grace and vulnerability connect us with our deeper selves and beyond.

Margaret’s intention is to cause a spark of imagination and emotional response in the viewer – allowing new interpretations and personal connections to the natural world. As an artist, she strives to bridge her painting with her concern for the environment. Her hope is that by connecting the viewer with the subject, we will be reminded of our interdependence as stewards of this planet.