“My process has always been a mix of deliberation, improvisation, and experimentation,” says Donna Zagotta. “I focus on color and value, composition, abstract shapes, mark-making, pattern, and painterly brushwork with the intention of transforming my subject into an expressive and creative visual statement that’s more about me than it is about the subject that inspired it.
“I find that my creative process is always in flux. I seem to be forever searching for a truer, clearer, more creative, and more authentic way to express myself. The more I paint and the more I learn and grow as an artist and as a woman, the more my work wants to change. Currently, I’m working on letting go of a good amount of the deliberation, exchanging it with the notion of letting things happen more spontaneously on the picture surface, letting the paintings develop more organically in the directions they (not me) want to take. For more than 20 years I’ve been teaching a workshop titled, Adding the YOU factor to Paintings, and I find that I’m still on that journey, still searching for my own vision and my own visual language.”
THE IMPORTANCE OF PLANNING
“For me, advance planning means mentally organizing my creative process for the painting I’m about to do,” she says. “I like to decide on the size of the figure and its placement on the picture surface, the size and shape of that picture surface, the color palette and working palette I’ll use, along with what other media and tools I’ll use if I’m planning to work in a mixed-media approach. Basically, my plan is a plan to get started. Once I begin painting I allow myself the freedom to make changes at any stage. I use my intuition to guide me as I put down paint or marks and respond to what shows up in the painting and what the painting needs next.”
Donna Zagotta’s inquisitive approach to design helps you create powerful compositions that say as much about you as they do about your subjects. In her video workshop, THE YOU FACTOR – POWERFUL, PERSONAL DESIGN IN OPAQUE WATERCOLOR, Zagotta breaks her process into manageable steps and approaches design challenges one at a time.
I love Donna Zagotta’s work! Thank you for publishing her stuff!