Virginia Donelson Studios

Born and raised in Virginia, I attended Hollins College and the University of Virginia. After graduating I moved to London to attend the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, and on finishing there moved to New York to pursue an acting career. Finding my true voice in writing and performing sketch comedy, I made the final cut in being cast on Saturday Night Live in 1979 and worked on the show as a bit player for the next few years. Working with other writer-performers as members of the comedy group Bess Truman Players, we were advised by Lorne Michaels to write an off-Broadway show; following Michaels's advice we wrote and mounted the comedy review Banned in France Off Broadway in 1983 at O'Neals at 43rd.

In 1989 I co-wrote and co-starred in a twelve character comic play for two actresses, DICK's ISLAND, which was an instant hit in the British and Scottish press when it premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1989. Following modest success writing and performing on Comedy Central and Showtime, in1994 I said goodbye to all that, married writer James Collins, had children, and moved to a farm in Somerset, Virginia. Twenty years later, rattling around in my empty nest, and never having had an art class in any of the schools I'd attended, I began painting lessons with local artists Becky Parrish and Pam Black. Three years later I have my own web site!

I believe that my background in comedy has hugely influenced my painting because success in comedy requires close observation, just as painting does. Comedy can only be truly funny when it reflects reality, and that requires a great deal of close observation of human behavior. Similarly I've found that the most critical factor in painting is looking, truly seeing and reflecting the character of one's subject. It's about proportion: a character played too broadly is never believable, a portrait without accurate proportions never renders a good likeness.

Since picking up my first paint brush three years ago, I find I love to paint portraits, chiefly of children and dogs, with our English setters as my muses. And finally I find great freedom in sometimes painting whimsical, even comical subjects, since after all my first love was comedy.