meet the artist
Donna Weathers
I’m a painter drawn to the tension between form and freedom, balance and spontaneity. My home studio is in Greenville, South Carolina, but the path that brought me here winds through many places. I spent 25 years in Los Angeles, and studied briefly at Georgia State University and Otis College of Art & Design. Still, I consider myself largely self-taught: I learned by doing, by listening to paint, and by trusting my intuition.
Drawing has always been second nature to me, a quiet act, a way to call something out of the ether. Over time, that evolved into painting: first sketches in charcoal or monochrome, then layers of paint built with brushes or trowels. I scrub, sand, scratch — I dig beneath surfaces to find the hidden stories. I let the paint be in charge for a while, but I also know when to step in, when a piece needs just enough to let the viewer’s imagination fill in the rest.
My work lives somewhere between abstraction and figuration. I paint figures and florals, but I don’t lean into tradition. I pick color palettes that are evocative, not literal. I’m less interested in fine detail than I am in emotional resonance: in how a form, a mark, a shape can speak to something deeper.
My hope is that each piece becomes a conversation. I want folks to pause, lean in, feel joy or peace, maybe even a little vulnerability. I believe beauty lives in the edges, in the layers, in the places you have to look a little harder.
When I teach, I bring that same playful, process-driven energy. In my workshops, like the ones I host in New Orleans and Greenville, I invite students to loosen up, get messy, and trust their instincts. We let the human form slip in and out of focus, and we let mark-making lead the way.
Over the years, my work has shown in group exhibitions, and I’m honored to have my paintings in private and public collections. But no matter where they go, to someone’s home, a gallery, or just in someone’s mind, I want my paintings to feel like a gentle reminder: we are surrounded by beauty, and there’s always space to breathe, imagine, and dream.