About Donna Wilson
Born to a third generation Alberta Ranching family, Donna Wilson has a strong affinity for the people and animals that live and work in this environment. She has continued to work with cattle and horses throughout her entire life, and spends a great deal of time enjoying the native wildlife that lives in the area. Most of the subjects of her sculptures are people and animals that are a part of her everyday life and she accurately depicts the individual characters of each. She and her husband live and work on the family ranch near Chain Lakes, Alberta where they have an outfitting business as well.
Always interested in art, Donna was encouraged by growing up in a creative family. Drawing and painting were her first interests and she has been sculpting since 2002. Donna claims that sculpting is very similar to drawing, although the fun lies with being able to depict all dimensions of the subject. She attended Alberta College of Art for one year in 1988-89 and has continued since then to work on her own.
One of her drawings is in the private collection of the Countess Mountbatten of Burma. She received the Best New Three Dimensional Artist at the Calgary Stampede in 2005 for a piece entitled “Mark n’ Frank”. “Mark n’ Frank” is an action packed piece depicting a real-life event that happened at a rodeo in Elko B.C. A bull charged one of the Pick-up men and his horse knocking them to the ground. The other Pick-up man, Donna’s husband Mark Parsons, rode in at high speed and maneuvered the bull out of the way saving his partner’s life.
Donna has donated an edition of a piece called “Sixty Inch Trail” both to the Guide Outfitters Association of British Columbia and to the Northwest Chapter of the Safari Club from Seattle to raise money for wildlife conservation. “Sixty Inch Trail” was created in honor of a friend and fellow outfitter, Bob Fontana, who was killed while hunting in Africa. It was inspired by a poem by the same title written by a mutual friend. Over $20,000 was raised for habitat and wildlife conservation issues by the sale of these two pieces.
While living and working close to nature and on the land, she has developed a deep appreciation for the people and animals in her environment. She is careful and observant in the detail of each individual making sculptures that are not only life like but accurate. Those persons who enjoy western art will like this artist’s depictions of the characters that live and work in an increasingly threatened way of life.