ARTIST STATEMENT

My enduring interests as a painter include the transmission of light through color, the materiality of paint, and intuitive, intentional processes. I create tactile and spatial relationships through gestural marks, layered surfaces, and generally bright palettes in my ongoing exploration of abstract forms.

In my most recent paintings, I employ color, texture, shape, and line to create compositions suggestive of the natural world. Gestural, horizontal marks sometimes look like horizon lines, while at other times they appear as strata of earth. In some works, bright colors and textured surfaces give abstract form to plants or features of landscapes. In others, expressive marks and translucent treatments suggest skies and celestial bodies.

While creating the paintings in Horizons & Environs, my local environment of woods, hills and lakes have been a source of solace and inspiration, and a reliable catalyst in the studio. The horizons in question are both literal and metaphorical as features of the natural world, and as creative expressions of things to come.

BIO

Donna Scarpa holds a BFA in Fine Arts and Textile Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She furthered her studies in painting and drawing at The School of Visual Arts, The National Academy of Design, The Art Students League of New York, The Green Studio School in NYC, and Assisi Italy. Scarpa has exhibited in New York and Connecticut; she maintains her studio in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024, Horizons & Environs, The Painting Center, New York, NY

2022, Reconstructing, The Painting Center, New York, NY

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024, Mix Master, Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT

2023, Rhythm, Rhyme, and Harmony, Katonah Museum Artists Association, Katonah, NY

2023, Far and Wide, Woodstock Artist Association & Museum, Woodstock, NY

2023, Anything Goes, Ridgefield Artists Guild, Ridgefield, CT

2022, PaperWorks 2022: Expanding The Boundaries, Upstream Gallery, Hastings On Hudson, NY

2022, 45th Annual Juried Exhibition, Ridgefield Artists Guild, Ridgefield, CT

2020, Ensemble: Together Again, The Painting Center, New York, NY

2020, Tales and Notes, New York School of the Arts, New York, NY

2019, Annual Small Works, The Mamaroneck Artists Guild, New York, NY

2019, MONOTHON 2019, Center for Contemporary Printmaking, New Canaan, CT

2019, Different Visions, Different Viewpoints, Mamaroneck Artists Guild, Larchmont, NY

2019, Women’s Art Power, The Sephardic Community Center, Brooklyn, NY

2019, Navigating the Surface, Mamaroneck Artists Guild, Larchmont, NY

2018, smallWORKS 2½, Garrison Art Center, NY 

2018, Annual Small Works, Mamaroneck Artists Guild, Larchmont, NY

2016, Annual Regional Juried Show, Art Society of Kingston, NY

2016, Annual Small Works, Mamaroneck Artists Guild, Larchmont, NY

2015, Annual Small Works, Mamaroneck Artists Guild, Larchmont, NY

2014, Annual Regional Juried Show, Art Society of Kingston, NY

2014, Annual Small Works, Mamaroneck Artists Guild, Larchmont, NY

2013,  Annual Regional Juried Show, Art Society of Kingston, NY

2013, Black and White, Woodstock School of Art, NY

2013, Annual Small Works, Mamaroneck Artists Guild, Larchmont, NY

CURATORIAL

2018, Color Speaks: Exploring the Language of Color, The BIZ Gallery, Larchmont, NY

2018, Inspired Journeys: Through Art, The BIZ Gallery, Larchmont, NY

2018, Facts and Ambiguities: Expressions in Composition, The BIZ Gallery, Larchmont, NY

PUBLICATIONS

2013, Balanced Rock – The North Salem Review of Art, Photography, and Literature

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

The Painting Center, New York, NY
Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield, CT
Katonah Museum Artist Association, Katonah, NY

PROFESSIONAL WORKSHOPS

Yellow Chair Salon
CritLab