the artist
Donald James Waters is an established Australian artist with an illustrious career spanning over four decades. While best described as a contemporary artist, Donald’s artwork transcends many genres to create a truly unique yet ever evolving and eclectic style. Donald has relaxed the confines of his initial beginnings in botanical art now using stylized strokes, overemphasized characters and bold blocks of colour to shift his primary focus to that of a storyteller rather than a technically correct traditional artist.
Donald’s career has taken his art to every corner of the globe and his distinctive style has made its way into the catalogues of many private and corporate collectors alike, including that of The Royal Collection (previously Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s art collection). More recently Donald has concentrated his efforts closer to home completing several commissioned government art projects and participating in community programs within Queensland. In 2016, Donald was awarded with an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for services to the community and the Arts and has been previously recognised as Gold Coast Citizen of the Year.
THE ART
DJW’s artworks are not merely a reproduction of landscape but a romanticised recall of memory tainted with childhood naivety. Engulfing you on his journey combining localities and moments, reminiscing upon an untamed childhood climbing trees and playing in the dusty red soil of the vast Outback; through a sunburnt adolescence stretching across the Australian coastline and into adulthood where DJW sometimes softens his lines and palette seeking solace from the urban sprawl in a medley of all elements – geographical and artistic to push the bounds of escapism into the realm of the improbable.