Tony Mc Donald Art

08/22/2026

"Tiger Island Fire V" has been accepted into the 2nd annual NSULA/NAGG Summer Competition at Northwestern State University.

This pastel on paper reflects the awe and destruction of the wildfire that swept across West Central Louisiana in 2023.

08/17/2026

“Seeking Mermantau” is a painting from about 5 years ago. I remember going to Toledo Bend Dam and photographing the large flocks of white pelicans that congregate there when the overflow spillway is open, feeding on the fish that are caught up in the current below the dam. I did some sketches of an incoming pelican over a landscape to begin with, from those photos.

You must be careful as an artist in Louisiana painting birds. There are thousands and thousands of bird paintings being done daily, and if you are not careful the image becomes trite and not very interesting. I fought that by being very loose with the paint and allowing it to fade into the atmospheric background.

Coastal erosion was, and is a big deal. Now, in 2026 the marsh below Lake Charles is under a severe threat of over-industrialization and destruction by Elon Musk and Space X. Animal habitats will be destroyed, species abolished, bird flight patterns interrupted and modified. Nothing good can come of it.

Now, “Seeking Mermantau” is more poignant. The White Pelican, returning to its nesting home, finds nothing but a sliver of land in a wash of polluted Gulf.

08/14/2026

I’m about to get back in the studio after a short hiatus, and I find it useful to retrace some of my book learnin’ to remember what makes a painting work. This is a dissection of a painting that I think is one of my best in the last few years…a lyrical landscape of Anacoco Lake at night.

As you read these comments, realize that as the painting was created, none of these were conscious or intended. They all came about in the act of painting, and from my subconscious as I worked the paint across the surface.

1. Triangulation. The three high key areas of the painting form a triangle that moves your eye across the canvas. This was a convention used since the Renaissance, and in most good works you will find some form of triangulation, should it be with color, shape, line or image. Look for those in paintings you like.

2. I use complementary colors adjacent to each other a lot. This happens to be blue/orange. Complementary colors sit across from each other on the color wheel and fight each other for attention.

3. Small things in the front and big things in the back set up a feeling of depth and perspective on a flat plane. It’s how your eye and your brain assume space and depth.

4. This is a “grey” made of complimentary colors, once again blue and orange. I was taught that complimentary greys don’t “die” like a black/white grey and engage other colors around them.

5. Repetitive shapes create a sense of balance if used correctly. I remember that I wanted the viewer’s eye to stay on the image and not float off the edge, like a lot of landscapes do. The eyebrow shapes keep you focus on the center images.

6. This horizon line, being in the center, makes the viewer standing eye level with the image, not looking up or down.

Painting is 36 x 60

08/13/2026

"Anacoco Lake Twilight" is a lyrical abstraction from a dream of days and nights staying at the VFW Landing as a teenager. I spent several summers there helping my father, who had the lease on the landing in the 70's...running the lake at night checking trot lines, gigging frogs and fishing. This painting captures the spirit and atmosphere of the lake at night, and my memory of those times.

07/18/2026

After quite a hiatus from just sketching, I joined a small group this morning sketching in the Garden District in Alexandria. Was fun. And hot.

07/14/2026

04/30/2026

What's in Your sketchbook ?

Illustrations from "A History of the World in 100 Objects" Sharpie and Coffee.