American painter, Donna Bruni is known for creating atmospheric paintings with broad, richly layered planes of color. Her compositions are based on form and flux of urban and natural environments. She states, “As a contemporary painter with deep roots in landscape, I am interested in places we are drawn to in our lives and stories that belong to these places.” Influenced by travel, geography and cultural traditions in Central America, Europe and coastal regions of the United States, her paintings investigate ideology of home and sense of place. Daily observation of light, air, water, wind, earth, sky, seasons and life cycles become contextual elements for meditative works on canvas. The process involves applying and mixing oil pigment directly on canvas with a palette knife, building layers, scraping off or brushing out areas between paint layers. Her current series of large scale paintings, Between Water and Sky, focuses on edges and boundaries, moving beyond the horizon line.
Born in New Jersey, Bruni was raised in Yardley, Pennsylvania, spending summers along the Atlantic coast with her family. She began her career in the arts working as a graphic designer in New York. In 1999, she established her painting studio in the Northeast Arts District of Minneapolis. She received her B.A. degree from the University of Minnesota, where she studied the link between creativity and healing. She is the art curator for University of Minnesota Physicians, Mill City Clinic Gallery in Minneapolis. Her paintings are held in public and private collections throughout the United States. Public collections and commissions include: University of Minnesota, Northland Community College, Hotel Ivy, PNC Financial Services, Birch Cove Group Ltd, HealthPartners Neuroscience Center and Otto Bremer Foundation. She is represented by Douglas Flanders & Associates Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota and Gardner Colby Gallery, Naples, Florida.
Website
https://www.donnabruniart.com/
