Donna Isham has always expressed herself artfully, painting since she could hold a brush, although the journey from working in the arts to becoming recognized for her painting was hard won. She graduated from UC Berkeley studying film and psychology and terrified of her vulnerability (courage being a requirement for Fine Artists) she pursued a successful career as a stylist and costume designer in Hollywood. Then came motherhood (of 4), CEO of Mark Isham Music company and being a human rights activist. Traveling the world, she was captivated by the beauty of architecture and environmental wonders as well as the underbelly of impoverished, uneducated and undervalued humans. She spent years overseeing the human condition. Throughout each and every venture, she created paintings and drawings, closed literally, hidden from display. Yet with each accomplishment, she continued to have the longing to return to her roots as a painter, putting her work out, expressing herself with paint on canvas.

Living in the city of Angels, she is supported by mountains, desert, and the sea. Amidst this stellar beauty is also the infamous light of Hollywood hype and make-believe, creating an air of the unreal and the surreal. Isham is inspired by these juxtapositions and the contradictions of extremes in the creation of her work. Her life experiences fuel her ongoing passion to paint, interpreting emotions through layered color applications and the flow mark making. She works in an array of mediums including charcoal, graphite, gouaches, oil stick, oil & acrylic, and mixed media. She uses her imagination, live models, and photographs to create her work. Isham's work has been featured in various local and national publications including Flaunt, Marin Magazine (cover), Los Angeles Magazine and Whitehot. According to Whitehot, "Isham's work creates an open, limitless highway that is friends of the multitudes which make us human and individuals. In this way, there is a most satisfying connection created between viewer and artist: an irresistible invitation into a deeper conversation.

Her paintings are part of private and corporate collections world wide and have been exhibited in prominent galleries in New York, Los Angeles, Grand Palais in Paris, Vienna, and Nantucket. She exhibited during Art Basel Miami week at Context Miami and Aqua Miami, 2020-2023 and recently at Intersect Palm Springs. Her installation and commissions include the hotel lobby at the Hyatt Hotel Miami, and the St. Regis Snow Lodge in Aspen. She has attended residencies at Anderson Ranch Art Center in Aspen and Chateau d”Orquevaux.

Her ongoing exploration of vulnerability and the human experience fuels her passion to create expressive art that transcends time and culture. Donna continues to build a repertoire of art pieces, inspiring beauty, and contemplating with all its viewers.

"...her rich and exuberant paintings embody the vulnerabilities of existence and an innate, collective desire to see our experiences as humans in the rendered mark." - Whitehot Magazine

"Isham's work creates an open, limitless highway that reminds of the multitudes that make us human and individuals. In this way, there is a most satisfying connection created between viewer and artist; an irresistible invitation into a deeper conversation..." Whitehot Magazine

"Isham's work becomes a catalogue of the human experience that exists outside of any time, space or cultural moment: rather, their timelessness presents a collective picture of humans in emotional, passionate, and earnest stances that we can all relate to, that bind us as a species and not as mere things to be labeled." - LA Weekly

"Donna Isham's figurative works are naked, raw and beautiful. She utilizes live models, photographs and a variety of materials from oil and acrylic to charcoal and pastels in order to create a more visceral impact." - Digital Journal

"Donna Isham's canvases are bold and honest, figurative and abstract. Seeing the female from from a woman's point of view is evocative and emotional." - Yesterday's Island