Description:

DONOVAN MC LEAN

Donovan Mc Lean’s vision and innovative style brings a fresh approach to African-American art.  He emigrated fromJamaica with a single purpose – to establish himself as a nouveau artist, with the chief focus geared to the culture of the African-American experience.

Importantly, the style of Donovan McLean artwork breaks the mold.  For example, while some of his canvas treatment embraces a form of BAS-relief that uses contrasting colors and shapes to deceive the eye into seeing beyond what are on canvas; other offer straightforward emotion – tugging images of life, living history of African-descent people.

Donovan’s Mc Lean’s interest in art started early.  Indeed, by the age of eleven, he had a solid grounding in anatomy, plus an understanding of traditional art techniques.  His self-taught odyssey included exposure to the techniques of the masters, along with Egyptian original art.  Without the benefit of traditional teachers, Donovan was able to discover, shape and follow his own sensibilities and cultural directions as he developed his own style.

The diverse subject matters of his work include jazz, religion, family, culture and sexuality.  He has created a new thought provoking “African Abstract” series.  Donovan uses oils, pastels, watercolor, mixed media, fabrics etc., to convey his messages.  His work is inspired and influenced by Louis Henry Mitchell, Stedroy Cleghorne, Willie Tolbert and Kolongi.  Donovan resided in New York City .

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