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Artist Profile: Jon McDonald
December 06, 2024
Local Grand Rapids painter, Jon McDonald, specializes in oil and watercolor landscapes and portraits. After attaining his Master of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute in California, he returned to Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids. He taught at Kendall for 40 years until retiring in 2020. His work is a permanent fixture in many collections. In his retirement, he continues to paint and exhibit throughout the country.
While he consistently returns to painting landscapes and cityscapes, McDonald also works in portraiture. Diving into themes such as racism, Black history, Native American history, and the environment, McDonald’s work places a high value on technique as well as education.
His artistic pursuits began when he was young, but he didn’t believe he could become a professional artist until he met an artist who looked like him at an art fair, doing portraits with oil pastels. Following that day, McDonald worked tirelessly to hone his skills and make art his own career.
Explore more artwork by Jon McDonald.
Jon McDonald, Moscow, oil on canvas, n.d., 1999.582.1.
Jon McDonald, Martin Luther King Jr., reproduction
watercolor, n.d., 2019.43.1.
Jon McDonald, Lombard Street, oil on canvas, n.d., 2019.33.2.