Donise English
My work is about the way visual diagrams present information that describes how something is made or the way it is. I am interested in drawing and collaging multiple layers of information that refer abstractly to maps, architectural drawings and blueprints or patterns and structures found in such things as roller coasters, power lines and fences. I use gouache and collaged paper in a series of layers that are a visual and ideological response to the previous layer to define my pictorial space. For each piece I create a set of rules to follow about the use of a limited palette, a grid format, opacity of paper and whether a piece may include curving lines or maintain a rectilinear structure.
Recent Work 
White Encaustic Paintings
I have the great fortune of having a Hudson Valley garden that produces, each and every year, a bountiful array of flowers whose realism — expressed through detailed botanical perfections and imperfections — cannot be denied. At the same time, upon a looser examination, this naturalistic realism can dissolve into visual juxtapositions of color, texture, lines, shapes, and light that suggest nature can also be understood as an abstraction. These paintings are inspired by nature’s duality: able to be observed as both real and abstract.
Each work is a multi-layered surface of oil paint and wax. The dark underpainting is visible under the loosely painted, abstract, and heavily textured white surface. The intricacies and specificities of the plants and flowers are then delicately drawn into and onto this abstract and randomized surface. Subtle highlights are then added in response to the specific context of flower and background. The contrast of the loose surface and the highly detailed rendering of the flower varies as you move closer or further from the painting. In eliminating strong or representational color, the surface images and textures are able to exist in an ambiguous space where image and background coexist, separated only by the thinnest of lines.
From careful observations come deeper understandings and unexpected revelations – an unplanned journey.
This group is a selection from the series. Additional images are available upon request.
2022
Encaustic Collage
My recent encaustic and collage works involves a process of building up a surface with paint and collaged hand-painted papers, then sanding that surface and applying multiple layers of wax to achieve a light-filled sense of layered space. The process enables me to explore the fundamental components of color and composition while continuing my ever-present interest in expressing texture through the fragility of materials and the manner in which they react to manipulation. Most importantly it allows me to explore my ongoing interest in the sense of touch and the way it embeds itself in, and indelibly records, human involvement in an object’s making.
This group is a selection from the series. Additional images are available upon request.
Quilts 
Encaustic 2016-2018
This group is a selection from the series. Additional images are available upon request.
Medium - Large Work on Paper
This group is a selection from the series. Additional images are available upon request.
Small Work on Paper
This group is a selection from the series. Additional images are available upon request.
What To Do With A Grid
This group is a selection from the series. Additional images are available upon request.
Older Encaustic
Paper Quilts
Lately I’ve been looking at quilts. The quirky patterns have found their way into my sculpture, gouache and encaustic pieces.
Whether using hand-stitching, tiny collage fragments, gouache or wax, the obscure processes of all of the works share an intricacy that allows me to explore my ongoing interest in the sense of touch and the way that it embeds itself in, and indelibly records, human involvement in an object’s making.
The small sculptures are constructed of hand-painted, encaustic soaked paper that I stitch together to form multiple similarly shaped components. This method of stitching and applying hot wax results in the quirky, imperfect shape of each unit that are then pieced together as one would a quilt using peculiar scraps of fabric.
Installations
SOLD
Resume
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Arts in Painting
Bard College 1986
Bachelor of Science in Art History
State University College at New Paltz 1977
Additional Study: New York Studio School (Drawing Marathons)
Columbia University, School of Architecture
Women’s Studio Workshop
TEACHING
Professor of Studio Art, Department of Art and Art History, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY
Coordinator, Interior Design Program, Florence, Italy campus
1992-present
AWARDS
NYFA Fellowship in Painting 2018
Invitational Award for Outstanding Contemporary Talent,
University of Bridgeport, CT 2000
Purchase Prize, “11th National Juried Exhibition”
College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Baltimore 1999
First Prize, “Women in the Visual Arts ‘95”
Erector Square Gallery, New Haven, CT 1995
Joseph A. Cain Memorial Purchase Award for Sculpture
Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX 1994
Honorable Mention, “National Juried Exhibition”
University of Bridgeport, CT 1993
Individual Artists Fellowship in Sculpture
Dutchess Arts Fund 1992/93
Tallix, Morris, Singer Internship in Sculpture
Tallix Foundry, Beacon, NY 1990/91
MEMBERSHIP Royal British Society of Sculptors
SELECTED JURIED/INVITATIONAL EXHIBITIONS
2020
“edu: Art Faculty of the Hudson Valley”, Hudson Valley MOCA, Peekskill, NY
2019
“Contemporary Abstraction”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Mixed Media”, SITE Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2018
“JuxtaPositions”, The Painting Center, New York, NY
“Peculiar Rarities”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
2017
“Interlock: Color and Contrast in Abstraction”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Donise English: Encaustics”, Catskill Art Society, Livingston Manor, NY
2016
“Let’s Stay in Touch”, Howard County Center for the Arts, Ellicott City, MD
“Under, Over, After Over”, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
2015
“Off the Grid”, Arts & Culture Program, Albany International Airport, Albany, NY
“Gridspace”, KMOCA, Kingston, NY
“Abstraction”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Assuming Identity”, NY Institute of Technology, New York, NY
2013
“Modern Artists”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region”, The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY
Stone Canoe/Community Folk Art Center, Syracuse, NY
2012
New York Institute of Technology, New York, NY
“Contemporary Painters (Who Just Happen To Be Women)”,
Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Strange Glue: Collage at 100”, Cambridge School, Weston, MA
“Dear Mother Nature”, Dorsky Museum, SUNY New Paltz, NY
“Fresher Paint”, Rockland Center for the Arts, Nyack, NY
Courthouse Gallery, Lake George Arts Project, Lake George, NY
2011
“Process+Content: Donise English”, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY “Donise English-Paintings”,Orange County Community College,
Newburgh, NY
“Gender Matters/Matters of Gender”, Freedman Gallery,
Albright College, Reading, PA
2010
Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Encaustics: Wax and Image”, Westchester Community College,
White Plains, NY
“Dots, Lines and Figures”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Spring Awakening”, NY Institute of Technology, New York, NY
“Clay City Dreams”, NY Institute of Technology, New York, NY
“Texture,Pattern, Fragment”, Krause Gallery, Moses Brown School,
Providence, RI
2009
“Collage”, NY Institute of Technology, New York, NY
“Working in Wax”, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA
“Encaustic 2009”, College of New Rochelle, NY
“Three Artists”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Convergence: The Human Experience”,Howard County Center for the Arts, MD
2008
“Suckers and Biters: Love, Lollipops, and Exquisite Corpse”
Chashama Gallery, New York, NY
Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson NY
2007
“Patterns and Light”, Blue Hill Gallery, Blue Hill, ME
“Suckers and Biters”, AG Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2006
“100 Artists, 100 Watercolors”, Jeannie Freilich Fine Art,
New York, NY
“On/Of Paper”,Kirkland Art Center, Clinton, NY
“The Love Show”, Manchester Community College, Manchester, CT
2005
The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN
“Small Tales”, Valdosta State University, Georgia
National Juried Exhibition,Art Institute and Gallery
Salisbury, MD, Juror: Stephen Haller
“Greed, Envy, Jealousy, Fear”, TSL Warehouse, Hudson, NY
2004
“Women in the Middle: Borders, Barriers, Intersections”
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
“Girl Art Now”,Hera Gallery, Wakefield, RI
3 Person Exhibition, Monterey Peninsula College, Monterey, CA
“The Feminine Eye”, Bradley University, Peoria, IL “Women Painting Women”, McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA “Thought Patterns”, Kent Place Gallery, Summit, NJ “Surface, Matter and Artifice”, Dutchess Community College Art Gallery
Poughkeepsie, NY
2003
“Beefcake/Cheesecake”,Orange County Center for Contemporary Art,
Santa Ana, CA,Juror: Jamie Wilson, Curator
Halpert Bienniel, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC
Juror: Jeff Fleming, Senior Curator, Des Moines Art Center “The Great White Oak”, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
2002
“Cat Calls”, Red Clay Arts, Brooklyn
“Hudson Valley Regional”, SUNY New Paltz
Juror: Sydney Jenkins, Director, Ramapo College Art Galleries
2001
One-Person Exhibition, Davis and Hall Gallery, Hudson, NY “Beyond the Surface”, Womanmade Gallery, Chicago
One-Person Exhibition, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY
2000
“Vision 2000” University of Bridgeport, CT, Juror: Ursula von Rydingsvard
(Invitational Award for Outstanding Contemporary Talent)
“Labyrinths and Mazes”, The Loft, San Pedro, CA
1999
“Instinct”, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA
Juror: Patrick Merrill, Director, Kellogg University
Art Gallery, CalPoly, San Luis Obispo, CA
“National Juried Exhibition”, College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
Juror: Jan Howard, Curator, Baltimore Museum of Art
“Gridworks”, Hera Gallery, Wakefield, RI
Juror: Maureen O’Brien, Curator, RISD Art Museum
1998
“From Form to Function”, College Art Gallery, SUNY New Paltz
Juror: Betty Wilde-Biasiny, Curator, Bronx Museum of Art
1997
“Texas National ‘97”, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, TX Jurors: Doug and Mike Starn
Catalogue published
“Pulp”, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA
1996
“Metaphor for the 20th Century”, Hera Gallery, Wakefield, RI
Juror: Rachel Rosenfield-Lafo, Curator, DeCordova Museum of Art “Hudson Valley ‘96”, College Art Gallery, SUNY New Paltz Juror: Linda Weintraub
1995
“Influenced by Nature”, Gallery at Hastings, NY
“Artist as Curator, Curator as Artist”, Bergen Museum of Art, Paramus, NJ Catalogue published
“National Drawing and Sculpture Show”, Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX Catalogue published
“Hope”, Peconic Gallery, Suffolk Community College, Riverhead, NY & Rathbone Gallery, Sage College, Albany, NY
“Women in the Visual Arts ‘95”, Erector Square Gallery New Haven, CT
(First Prize)
1994
“New Directions ‘94”, Barrett House Galleries, Poughkeepsie, NY Juror: Brooke Kamin-Rapaport, Curator, Brooklyn Museum
“Threadlore”, NY Open Center, New York, NY
“Culture and Agriculture”, New Visions Gallery, Marshfield, Wisconsin
“National Drawing and Sculpture Show”, Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX (Purchase Prize)
“Juried Show ‘94”, New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, Summit, NJ Juror: Robert T. Buck, Director, Brooklyn Museum
“X-Sightings”, Anderson Gallery, Buffalo, NY
1993
“The Turn Around Year”, A.I.R. Gallery, New York, NY Juror: Lowery Sims
“Beauty and the Beast”, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin “Halpert Biennial”, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina “National Juried Exhibition”, University of Bridgeport, CT (Honorable Mention) Juror: Elizabeth Sussman, Curator, Whitney Museum
“Architecture: Artists’ Interpretations”, Southern Utah University, Cedar City, Utah “Image and Soul”, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL
“Imagination”, Peconic Gallery, Riverhead, NY
1992
“Invitational”, Atlantic Gallery, New York, NY
Art-Eco: Contemporary Artists and the Environment”, College Art Gallery, SUNY New Paltz, NY, Jurors: Norton Batkin, Patricia C. Phillips
1991
“Myth, Spirituality and Culture”, College Art Gallery,
SUNY New Paltz, NY, Jurors: Connie Butler, ArtistSpace, Gary Sangster,
New Museum
“Tallix Artists”, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY
1985
“Image, Surface”, The Terminal, Brooklyn, NY
1985
Two-Person Exhibition”, Blum Art Institute, Bard College,
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
1980
“Hudson River Contemporary Artists, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
1979
Group Exhibition, Seaport Gallery, New York, NY
