Carolyn McDonald paints and teaches in Birmingham, Alabama. She has taught basic principles of art for over 25 years. She has taught kindergarten to graduate level art and gives thanks and praises to her influential teachers such as Dawn Whitlaw, Michael Shane Neal, Peggi Kroll Roberts, Timothy Thies, and Carole Gray-Weihman for their encouragement and their selfless attitude about teaching painting.
Her portrait work has been described as having, "the elusive feel of a movie star idol from the 1940's" and Michael Shane Neal describes her work as bearing "strength of color, an acute sense of design and bold application of paint." McDonald states, "I am not only privileged to be a student of Shane Neal, but to also have been his figure drawing teacher at Lipscomb University. My student became my mentor." She earned two fine arts degrees from the University of Tennessee in painting and drawing and a doctorate in art-education with a minor in painting from The Florida State University.
My interest in painting is just as Robert Henri said, "I am interested in painting as a means of living a life; not as a means of making a living." Everything becomes painter's fodder when I am drawn to the colors, values and textures of a subject. I push myself to capture the personality of a person, feeling of a place, or the effects of light; to slow-dance and become intimate with the subject. That process brings me joy. Henri also said, "All great works of art should look as though they were created with great joy." During the painting process, I loose track of time, and as the painting unfolds, it is as if I am existing in that world of joy and infinite peace.
