From Muskogee to San Antonio
M. Donna Good was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1941. Today she is a San Antonio watercolorist, and San Antonio runs through her paintings.
Her medium is transparent layered watercolor. Each wash is thin enough to let the white of the paper glow through the color above it, and a painting gathers its depth one layer at a time. Her 2021 artist profile with the City of San Antonio names watercolor and mixed media as her work.
What She Paints
Seventeen of Donna’s watercolors hang in this online gallery, and together they map the places and pleasures of a Texas life.
The San Antonio River runs through several of them. In San Antonio River Walk, a stone bridge arches over the water while trees and riverside buildings settle into their reflections. In Rosita’s Bridge Over San Antonio Riverwalk, vivid pink flowers and tropical leaves frame another arched bridge. Farther west, South Llano Texas Riverscape follows a clear river between green and gold trees toward low Texas hills.
Her gardens are just as generous. Pink dogwood blossoms follow their branching stems, coral blossoms crown tall prickly pear pads, and pink and coral petunias spill over the edges of terracotta pots. Cabbage Adage turns a familiar vegetable into layers of pale green, blue and violet, and Sunflower Poppy Bunch gathers yellow sunflowers, red poppies and purple flowers into one bright bouquet.
Some paintings come to the table. Afternoon Family Tea sets flowers, a blue pitcher, a teacup and small pastries side by side, and Red Bing Cherries on Linen Tablecloth pairs a blue jug of yellow flowers with red cherries and patterned linen. Gruene Table on Front Porch catches potted flowers in the sunlight beside a window, and Sanctuary Mission Door frames a rounded wooden doorway in warm ochre stone.
Winter has a room of its own: a small red bird among pale aspen trunks, a golden moon over snowy pines, a poinsettia in bright red and orange, and a smiling snowman in a red striped scarf. The Girl and Her Dog When They Were Young brings a girl in a straw hat and apron to stand beside her dog.
Her Art Community
Donna is an Associate member of the Texas Watercolor Society. The society’s official member directory lists her as “Good, M. Donna.”
She is also a member artist of the River Art Group, whose gallery is at 418 Villita Street, Suite 1400, in La Villita, the historic arts village beside the River Walk. The group has cultivated creative community in San Antonio since 1947.
Away From the Easel
Her City of San Antonio profile records a traveler as well as a painter. Donna has journeyed through Texas, California, Montana and Oklahoma researching genealogy and fly fishing, and she is an avid jigsaw puzzler. A puzzler’s patience suits watercolor, where each wash waits for the one beneath it to dry.
Visit the Paintings
Every painting on this site has its own page and opens to a larger view. The original watercolors are held in the artist collection, and Contrado prints Donna’s paintings on goods for the home, the table and every day.