Well-known in Canadian art circles, Tatianna O’Donnell has brewed herself a new audience.
The Salmon Arm resident answered a call for artwork issued by Scottish brewery Innis & Gunn.
Her oil painting, Forest Spectrum, will be featured on packaging for the company’s new limited-edition beer.
An Innis & Gunn representative says the Canadian Cherrywood Finish is the company’s fifth annual brew in honour of the company’s loyal Canadian following.
This year also marks the company’s third consecutive year the company has worked with the Society of Canadian Artists to find original artwork for its limited-edition beer packaging.
O’Donnell says Forest Spectrum was inspired by a forest near Canmore, Alta. where she lived for four years and hiked often.
One particular area called out to O’Donnell.
“Part of the forest had been burned out and the texture and colour contrast between the burnt-out area and the green forests was very interesting,” she says, noting, the company looked at several of her landscapes before asked for another submission. “I was really elated, it’s very exciting.”
Long inspired by nature, O’Donnell has painted many paintings of landscapes and trees.
“My landscapes are never totally realistic; there’s lots of texture and colour,” she says, noting her first inspirations were the abstract expressionists from Montreal of the ’60s.
O’Donnell lived Enderby for several years prior to moving back to Alberta to be close to her grandchildren.
O’Donnell and her husband soon learned their family had their own busy lives and headed west again two years ago – this time to an acreage in Salmon Arm.
Raised in Montreal O’Donnell says she has been painting for most of her life.
“I remember being homesick in junior high when I began copying things out of my home ec. book, then started playing around with colour and media,” she says. “My mother, who always supported the arts, registered me at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.”
O’Donnell was 14 and the museum school director was Arthur Lismer of the Group at Seven fame.
“I took two years of Saturday-morning classes and I’ve never stopped since.”
O’Donnell began showing her work when she moved to Calgary and has since had exhibitions in various venues in Alberta and B.C., including one at SAGA Public Art Gallery.
O’Donnell is equally comfortable working with oils and acrylics, but especially enjoys working on canvas with paint.
“She has started doing still life projects, “putting objects that we use around the home together in an interesting way.”
O’Donnell continues her Enderby connection, having recently become chair of that community’s new Courtyard Gallery.
