Amateur Artist Brings Home Surprise Win

She'd never entered an art contest before, so Donna Ward wasn't really expecting to win when she entered three pieces in the recent Strawberry Festival Art Show.

To her surprise, the Bloomingdale woman not only received a fourth place but discovered her oil painting had been mistakenly judged in the professional category.

"I couldn't believe it. I was waiting for someone to call me to tell me if I won, and then my sister called me from the Strawberry Festival to tell me I'd gotten a second place in oils and a third place in pastels," said Ward. "She didn't notice that the oil painting was in the professional area."

When Ward found out her painting had been accidentally placed in the category for professional artists, she said she was astounded.

"I was embarrassed," she said. "I never aspired to say I'm a professional."

Nevertheless, the Strawberry Festival judges thought the oil portrait of Christ on the cross deserved to be in the professional category.

A second pastel portrait of Jesus was correctly judged in the amateur category, and Ward received a third place for the work.

She also entered a graphite drawing of St. Gregory in the contest.

Ward said she was especially surprised to receive ribbons for her work since she's never had any formal art training. 

"I never painted or drew anything until seven years ago," said Ward, who spent 35 years working as a hairdresser. 

That all changed when she was accidentally hit on the head while trying to move a wrought-iron bed. She suffered peripheral nerve damage as a result. In addition, doctors discovered she had an Horner's Syndrome in which the pupil in one eye doesn't enlarge with changing light. Around the same time, Ward also became sick and was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.

It was while undergoing countless medical tests that Ward picked up a paintbrush to relieve stress.

"I would call myself a serious amateur," she said. "I'm self-taught. I've only taken one oil-painting class."

Although she dabbles in all mediums, except watercolors, Ward said she only paints portraits.

"I can't draw a decent landscape to save my life," she said. "But with my experience as a hairdresser and as a makeup artist, I've touched the human head so much that I understand the shape and proportions of the head."

Her first painting was a representation of her father as Christ, a favorite subject of the resident, an active member of St. Andrew's United Methodist Church.

"I don't know how I do what I do," she said. "It's a gift from God."

Although she dabbles with pastels and graphite, oils are her favorite medium.

"I like the way you can layer oils, and it's very forgiving," she said. "Plus I love the Old Masters, and they all used oils."

She finds, also, that she must be inspired before she can paint.

"That's one of the reasons I don't think of myself as an artist," she said. "Artists can paint any time. But I have to be seriously inspired."

Most of her portraits to date have been created for family members. It didn't occur to her to enter her works in the Strawberry Festival Art Show until her mother-in-law, also an artist, began encouraging her.

"I thought, what the heck, it'd be fun," she said. "I really didn't expect anything."