Mikel Donahue

b. Tulsa, OK (United States)

A multiple award winning member of the Cowboy Artists of America, artist Mikel Donahue is best known for his impeccable depictions of cowboy life. His drawings and paintings portray ranchers and their livestock during the day-to-day ritual of sun-up to sun-down work on the ranch. What may seem as mundane chores are captured and translated through his artistic style into moments of meaning and reflection.

Donahue, who was born and raised in Tulsa, was taught about life on the ranch by his paternal grandfather who raised cattle in northcentral Oklahoma. It was Donahue's maternal grandfather who exposed him to western art at an early age with memorable trips to Tulsa's Gilcrease Museum and what was then the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. Fascinated both by life on the ranch and the iconic art by the likes of Charlie Russell and Frederic Remington, as an adult, Donahue has become a perfect amalgam of his influences with a life breeding racing quarter horses with his wife Christie on their place outside Broken Arrow and an award-winning career in the arts.

Awards

Cowboy Artists of America
2019 - Gold Medal – Drawing; Gold Medal – Mixed Media; Silver Medal - Water Solubles
2018 - Silver Medal - Other Media
2017 - Silver Medal - Water Solubles,
2019/2020 – The Society of Animal Artists select traveling exhibition, Art and the Animal
2017 - Inducted as a Member of the Will Rogers High School Hall of Fame
2011 - Academy of Western Artists: Will Rogers Award Artist of the Year
2010 - Buffalo Bill Historical Center: Premier Platinum Award and William E. Weiss Purchase Award
2009 - Buffalo Bill Historical Center: Artists’ Choice Award