About Deirdre
Deirdre Donovan has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Painting from Finch College in New York City. After graduating she remained in New York, and studied with the Hungarian portrait painter, Maria de Kammerer. From there, Deirdre travelled to Paris, France where she attended the Modern Atelier at the École des Beaux Arts for two years. While there she painted in a surrealistic style.
She received a Masters Degree in special education from the Bank Street College of Education in New York. As her field work, she was assigned to be a teacher/therapist for an autistic child in the therapeutic nursery at Bellevue Hospital.
It was while working towards her degree at Bank Street that she became interested in writing a children's book. Her children's picture book, Angel in Paradise, is available for purchase here.
When she lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, she learned Thangka Painting from Jamyang Singe, who began to master the art of portraying the Buddha as an eight year old monk in a Tibetan monastery.
Since moving to Hawaii Deirdre has worked with numerous Plein Air painters, and has studied portraiture with Jove Wang.
Other artists who inspire and influence her are Jeremy Lipking, Joseph Mallord William Turner, Stephen Hannock, John Singer Sargent, Anders Zorn, Stanka Kordic, and Adrienne Stein.
Deirdre's art has been descibed as authentic, painterly and ecclectic. Her paintings are filled with feeling and vibrant imagery. Painting in a wide variety of media and styles, reflecting her rich inner life, her work expresses a calming, healing energy.