Our friends Donna and George came by last week to show me the paintings that Donna will be selling in the Bedlam Farm Open House this Saturday and Sunday. They’re drawings she made of the animals when she and George visited Bedlam Farm a few weeks ago. George took pictures with Jon and Donna drew. Now she’s painted them. Her favorite is one of the hens and my favorite is the one she’s holding, of the sheep and lambs.
Donna is an untrained artist who started seriously drawing and painting years ago when she met her partner, the photographer George Forss. Now they inspire and encourage each other.
I was taken with Donna’s art from the first time I saw it in a gallery in Cambridge before I knew her. Now Jon and I have a nice collection of her work. Her work is mystical and often whimsical and always confident. It has a feeling of spontaneity although it’s very deliberate. You can find Donna with her sketch pad drawing from life in many of the businesses on Main Street in Cambridge. She also takes classes in all kinds of mediums and is always trying something new.
After looking at Donna’s work, we scouted out the area in the back yard where George would be taking portraits during the Open House. It didn’t take him long to find right spot, just to the right of the giant birch. “From here”, he said “everywhere you look it’s the perfect background.” George’s portraits will cost somewhere around $100. But you can get all the details from him at the Open House. Jon and I had George take our photo for the jacket of Jon’s last book The Second Chance Dog and I can tell you George is a pleasure to work with and a wonder of a photographer.
