award-winning american artist Elke D'Onofrio
"The art you surround yourself with, should bring you joy, each time you encounter it." -D'Onofrio
Elke D’Onofrio (b.1958) studied painting at The Ridgewood Art Institute. She also studied privately with Lorraine Minnetto and recently Andrey Tamarchenko. She previously studied fine art printmaking at Old Church Cultural Center School of Art. She has a BS in Finance and Economics from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Her artwork hangs in private collections in the US and in Europe and has won many awards. Her work has primarily been shown in New Jersey and New York City galleries.
One notable body of work she created encompasses assemblage and various mixed media projects. Combining her love for color and texture with her interest in ancient history, symbolism, world religions and recycling, she developed the idea for the assemblage mirrors based on a feng shui bagua. A Bagua is a map and in feng shui, each area has a corresponding life element (love, health, travel, money, career etc). Working loosely from the bagua, each mirror frame represents a microcosm of the elements of life and a reminder to have fun. Some of the frames have very practical and functional elements and many have hidden symbols: solar systems and roosters are two favorites of hers.
Most recently, she has poured herself into painting. Her favorite medium is oil. She enjoys the challenge of the still life and capturing the essence of a landscape or seascape. She also has a love affair with flowers.
About ME
Original Paintings
Obsessed with painting!
I have to paint. I just have to! When I am not painting I am thinking about painting or reading about painting. At a museum or gallery, I love to get right up as close as I can and see the brushstrokes and notice the details on which the artist places attention and focus. But most of all, I just love to paint.
Driven to capture the light and the atmosphere of my subjects and share a feeling through my paintings, I experiment with color but always, always, always keep my eye on the values. Painting for me is translating what I see and feel and committing it to canvas and hopefully my sense of joy or sense of wonder escapes and is experienced by the viewer. Can the image illicit both excitement and serenity?
For me, the process of painting holds many allures. Choosing the subject is important. I will be intensely intimate with that subject for many hours, so it needs to draw me in. Once I’m established in my composition, time seems to disappear. Often, it is like doing a puzzle except instead of puzzle pieces I have values and shapes. The play of light and dark is after all, a constant.
Elke D’Onofrio | March 1, 2018
Commissions and Inquiries Welcomed!
Pet portraits, landscapes, still lifes in specific size or color schemes are available for the asking.
Past Exhibitions
The Garnerville Gallery, Haverstraw , NY
The Interchurch Center, Corridor Gallery, New York, NY 2004
Pacack Art Ass’n Honorable Mention 2005
BCCBF 1stPlace, Mixed Media 2003
Crooked Halo Gallery, Park Ridge, NJ
River Vale Public Library, River Vale , NJ
Washington Township Public Library, Washington Twp, NJ
Juried In Art Center of Northern NJ 2016 & 2017
Kurth Cottage, Ridgewood, NJ 2018
Fairlawn Public Library, 2022
Ridgewood Public Library, 2024
Private collections in US, Greece, Georgia, Austria, Switzerland
Gallery
