Donovan Rose

Donovan was born in Sorrento BC in 1984 and raised in an artist run home. The youngest of six siblings, his education began at an early age, as his father was a lazy poet, and his mother a talented baker and wildlife sketch artist. Donovan's mother tight him the fundamentals of drawing from life at a young age and he was surrounded by creativity, as his siblings were busy with their own expression. With his only formal arts education coming in the last year of high school, Donovan graduated and went straight into the labourer force, working in central Alberta and later Vancouver.

In 2010 after moving to Montreal, Donovan began studying art on his own accord. While working as a janitor, he would read about the modern masters and make drawings in a storage room at work, taking them home later to fill with paint. Soon he moved to portraits of his roommates and random historical figures and a visit to an Otto Dix exhibition inspired three full scale figure paintings, sought with fauve and cubist influence, which he has continued to explore and expand upon.

Donovan is currently living in the Cowichan Valley where he and his partner run The Ou Artist Residency and Gallery. He is currently working on a series of paintings exploring the theme of bathers in the modern Arcadia, through his grandfather's photographs of life on the Shuswap Lake in the 1960's.