Donato Arts

Over 20 years ago I provided this painting as cover art to David Drake's neo-roman novel 'Master of the Cauldron'. I was never fully happy with the image, the figures and narrative did not seem unified enough to offer it for sale or display beyond its use as the cover art. It remained in the studio, surfacing every few years to see if inspiration for a repaint/retouch had taken hold.

Last month fortune struck!

My artist friend Bryon Wackwitz was browsing through the studio and came upon the painting, one he had not seen before (I had never posted it on my website). Bryon immediately felt transfixed by it, but I mentioned it wasn't ready for sale or display, and proceed to talk about the problems with the work.

As I pointed out the issues to a fellow professional, the objective analysis and critical language I shifted into around the dialog immediately presented a resolution to resolving the issues I had within the work! I was elated!

Thank you Bryon for helping me embrace my artistic shortcomings!

20+ years late, I now present to you...

Medusa's Garden!

Realized I had not shared this awesome commission executed and released last year for the special edition of Adrian Tchaikovsky's acclaimed 'Children of Time' from Orbit Books! I had kept the news under wraps as Orbit did their PR thing, and then it slipped past me in the waves of other art commissions I've undertaken since.

The book is an excellent read, taking a novel run with evolutionary genetics and a bit of cryo-time dilations to skip-jump years for the narrative. Highly recommend this book.

The art was a great challenge - melding a close up foreground scene of intelligent spiders (how DO you show that?), working in the organics of the world landscape, zooming off to low orbit for a starship, and lastly off into intergalactic space. All within one visually organized 'landscape'. Damn! Not sure how it all came together, but some how it worked!!

Thank you art director Lauren Panepinto for the chance to play within Adrian's worlds!

Children of Time

Continuing with this series of covers for Sharon Shinn's 'Twelve House' series of novels, here is my favorite, a portrait of the cornered shapeshifter Kirra, with representations of her altered states in the tiled wall behind her.

Forth and fifth in the NYC Lands series, The Bronx and Brooklyn. Including the preliminaries and abstracts for those interested in the process development in these oil paintings.

This past weekend I attended LobsterCon, the hosting event for the North American Pre-Modern Championships in Magic. Special for that event, I was commissioned to create a new set of landscapes related to New York City, one for each mana color from the game. I poured my love of this city into this project, a city where Carey and I have lived for 34 years and raised our two daughters. I could not be more proud of this set. Thank you Brad Stone, Andy Levine, Simon Penzer and all at LobsterCon for making this possible. Here is the first, inspired by the popular lightning island from Urza's Saga.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!!!!! I can't express how cool, humbled, and honored I am to be a part of this new special edition of Douglas Adams' series of Hitchhiker's novels from Wraithmarked Creative. Luck and fortune had Bryce O'Connor, the CEO of Wraithmarked, and I meet and talk in my final hours at Dragonsteel convention eighteen months ago as i waited for the plane. That discussion revealed our shared passion over these stories, the fact I was able to meet Douglas Adams as an art student in 1990, and which then opened up the commissions with Wraithmarked which followed this past year.

Wraithmarked is a company I am proud to be working with, providing the trust and freedoms to spread my creative wings as widely as I needed to celebrate Adams' unforgettable narratives in these oil paintings. Thank you to Bryce, Ben Doran, and Tom Jilisen for making these works such a thrill to execute.

Restaurant at the End of the Universe endpapers 24" x 36" Oil on Panel 2026

Catching up on art posts, very honored and proud to share this oil painting which went live this past Friday, a work created for Elliot Lang's 'Character In Context' show at the A.R. Mitchell Museum in Trinidad, Colorado. Opening is June 5th (sorry, I will not be there) Link to the on line catalog with the few dozen talented artist's contributions with preliminary studies and final paintings in the comments below.

Precipice

20" x 16" Oil on Panel, framed, 2026

A part of my series of works in dialog with our mythological fascination with space travel and our place in the universe.

Character in Context

A.R. Mitchell Museum of Western Art

150 E. Main St.

Trinidad, CO 81082

And Now For Something Completely Different...

A higher resolution scan of the the charity raffle drawing from this past weekend's event in Boston, LobsterCon, in benefit of the non-profit 'Room to Grow'. Created something which would speak to a larger audience as we did not know who may win the drawing. Reaching outside the gaming world, but not much further :)

Rabbit of Caerbannog 14" x 11" Watercolor Pencil and Chalk on Toned Paper

This Friday and Saturday May 1st & 2nd, you can find me at the North American Premodern Champs Tournament for Magic: The Gathering - also known as LobsterCon!

This is an event celebrating the Old School and Premodern format of the game and is also an annual charity fundraiser for 'Room to Grow', a Boston-based nonprofit organization.

I will be donating numerous prizes and original works of art to support the charity and event, and be on hand both days for signings with two tables packed of original drawings, oil paintings, playmats, proofs, prints, and books.

Note this is a sold out event!

Spacesuits! A few other images of futuristic astronauts, created for commercial projects and personal works. It's nice to be able to bring my design aesthetic into author's worlds as a collaboration. Thanks to Chris on the updated scan of the GCC portrait, executed as a demonstration while at GenCon decades ago!

GCC Astronaut

16" x 24" Oil on Panel 2000

collection of Chris Arneson Illustration

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Godheads

13" x 22" Oil on Panel 1997

private collection

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Calibration

18" x 24" Oil on Panel 2018

Spacesuits! The red suit from my Massive Black demonstration video on oil painting (thanks for modeling Kristina!), and the other my first 'spacescape' in 1994 just a year into my career as an illustrator, a book cover for Ben Bova's novel 'Orion Among the Stars'.

The Mechanic

22" x 34" Oil on Panel 2009

private collection

Orion Among the Stars

27" x 18" Oil on panel 1994