BIO

Erin Donnelly is an abstract painter working in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Lyons, Colorado. She is focused primarily on large-scale, abstract paintings utilizing the mediums of oil, acrylic, and Prismacolor pencil on canvas.

​

Erin was born in California and studied painting at UC Berkeley and then CU Boulder after relocating to Colorado with her husband 20 years ago. She is a happy Colorado transplant and feels lucky to live at the liminal edge of where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains–a vibrant and creative place to raise a young family. Erin has worked as an archaeologist, interior designer, and head of sales for a successful beverage company startup before returning in 2021 to a full-time studio practice.

​

She has been painting for more than 20 years, with work in private and corporate collections across the U.S.

​

​

ARTIST STATEMENT

In these abstract paintings, I engage in a long and dynamic process of intuition and composition that transforms each work through a series of delicate adjustments. Objects emerge, are scratched out and painted over, or are left as glimpsed fragments. The finished piece is a complex tapestry of layered color fields and textural forms, knit together by a searching, curious line.

​

​

SELECTED GALLERIES AND EXHIBITIONS

2023    Exhibiting Artist at Globe Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2023    "Tapestries" June - September Solo Show, Messinger Gallery, Boulder, CO

2022    "Small Works Show" Main Street Gallery, Lyons, CO

2022    "Art at Riverbend" Boulder County Arts Alliance, Lyons, CO

2022    "Memory Keeper" Threshold Collective, Yellow Barn Farm, Boulder, CO

2011    "Casting the Lake" Solo Show, Smith House, Harrisonburg, VA

2010    "Four Forms" Solo Show Augusta Medical Center, Fishersville, VA

2002-2010    please visit erindonnelly.com for full exhibition list.

​

​

WORKSHOPS TAUGHT

Spring 2023 Acrylic Painting: Exploring Fundamentals and Composition, Lyons Farmette, CO

Fall 2022 Intro to Acrylic Painting, Lyons Farmette, CO

Winter 2010 Mastering the Color Palette, Island Arts League, San Juan Island, WA

Summer 2008 Young Artists at Work: Sensing Your World, BMOCA, Boulder, CO

Winter 2006 Basic Oil Workshop: Focus on Color Rembrandt Yard, Boulder, CO

​

​

AWARDS

Rug Design for Doris Leslie Blau’s “Designer Collection” selected as one of the best designs of the year in Architectural Digest’s May, 2003 Great Design Issue.

​

​

EDUCATION

University of Colorado at Boulder

Graduate Painting with Charles Forsman (Fall 2004)

Advanced Painting IV with Charles Forsman (Fall 2003)

Metropolitan State College at Denver

Modern Art History (Fall 2003)                                                                                                    

California College of Arts and Crafts

Figure Drawing (Spring 2002)

Figure Painting (Spring 2002)                                                                                                      

UC Berkeley Extension

Design Theory and Process; Drafting; Antiques Survey (Fall 2001)

University of California at Berkeley

BA Anthropology, Honors. Emphasis: Religious and Medical Traditions. (May 2000)

​

​