Donna Wood

I am a lifetime resident of Fort Worth and have been involved in the Fort Worth art community for over 40 years. Bettie Smith was my mother and a well known Fort Worth artist and art teacher. We were docents together at the Modern Museum of Fort Worth where I still volunteer. I graduated from Paschal High School in 1967,where I was chosen most artistic and went on to Texas Women's University, where I majored in painting and earned a degree in art education. After graduation, I taught art in the Fort Worth Independent School District for 10 years, and more recently taught a session at the Fort Worth Women's Club. My work has been exhibited by the Fort Worth Watercolor Society and the Fort Worth Women's Club. In 2009 I had a four women show at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, and last summer my acrylic painting, Lizards and Hibiscus, was picked for the juried show, Texas Artists Coalition, 2010, at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. I have been influenced by many art teachers in my life, number one being my mother. Bea Dunning led me at Paschal to further my art in college where I was influenced by Toni La Salle, a well known painter, who studied under Hans Hoffman, one of my favorite artists. Joan Mitchell, Georgia O'Keeffe, and many of the abstract expressionists have had a major influence on my creativity in figures and florals, even as a young girl. My inspiration for my art comes from nature as well as shapes and forms in simple landscapes. As I have become older I have looked to the past in old photos of growing up in Fort Worth for inspiration.