MCC Actor Training School Director Donna Haley to present art show at library

WARWICK — Many of those who know longtime Warwick resident Donna Haley as a professional actress and director of Warwick's MCC Actor Training School may be surprised to learn that she has also been painting her entire life.

Beginning Sunday, April 13, and throughout the month, the Albert Wisner Public Library will host an art show featuring 21 paintings by Haley. They include large watercolors as well as smaller oil paintings featuring scenes of Warwick as well as New York City, Italy and Africa.

A Meet the Artist reception will be held on the opening day from 2 to 4 p.m.

Haley began her formal training with Robert Beverly Hale at the Art Students League in New York where she studied classical anatomical form and structure. While at the League she also studied Classical Drawing under Gustav Rehberger, Still Life with Richard Goetz and Figurative Painting under Peter Cox, who taught her the bold use of color and form, and the dramatic use of light.

Haley gained her understanding of the prismatic light progression in landscape and her landscape palette from John Philip Osborne at the Ridgewood Art Association. She also continues to work with Susan Hope Fogel, a well-known Warwick artist and instructor who is guided by the same principles.

Currently, Haley is painting using new watercolor techniques under the tutelage of Master Painter Paul Ching Bor at the Art Students League. The works are large, at least 4-by-5 feet, and generally painted using a neutral palette with shocks of light and color. About half of the 21 paintings in this upcoming exhibit are by this method. The other paintings are primarily oil landscapes, some large drawings, and some Giclee prints.

Haley is a member of the American Watercolor Society, and an award-winning artist in the annual Art Students League Exhibit. Her paintings are in private collections in the United States and in Canada.