Donald Cronkhite, Artist

Donald Cronkhite has been creating works of art ever since he was old enough to put pencil to paper. It has only been in the last ten years, however, that he has become passionate about oil painting and has been continuously narrowing and perfecting his subjects since then. Currently his focus is cloud formations just moments before a storm.

“I want my art to express emotion,” he says. “While I observe all my skies directly from nature, I ‘enhance’ the reality to better convey these emotions to the observer.” Much like a photographer manipulates an image in the darkroom, Donald expands nature’s color palette, darkening the darks and highlighting the lights, and sometimes blending two or more images together, to produce an effect that is an intensified version of reality.

Inspired from childhood by the colors used by 16th century Dutch painters, Rembrandt in particular, Donald has lately taken interest in the colors and brush strokes of late Degas, Monet and J. M. W. Turner. “I like to use soft, fluid brush strokes in parts of my paintings, and loose, irregular brush strokes in other areas. Sometimes loose brushwork presents a greater illusion of realism than a work that’s completely polished.”

Donald earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Wayne State University in Detroit,Michigan. He is an award-winning exhibit designer by day, husband and father of 3 young children by night, and a painter every spare moment he can find in between. He currently exhibits his paintings at the Gruen Galleries in Chicago, Illinois.