Labor and Landscape: 100 Paintings of the Allegheny Mountain Region by Ron Donoughe

Loretto - The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Loretto is pleased to announce the opening of Labor and Landscape: 100 Paintings of the Allegheny Mountain Region by Ron Donoughe. 

A native son of Cambria County and Loretto, Donoughe wanted to dig deeper into the places he calls home. He did so by visiting many businesses, farms and even the county fair. Asking permission to paint on private premises and at many area businesses and industries, he was given personal tours of steel mills, a pretzel factory and even a taxidermy school, to name just a few. His idea was explore curiously, with a paintbrush in hand.

Most of Donoughe’s paintings were done en plein air, which simply means they were painted on location in front of the subject. Because some environments were simply too dangerous for an artist to set up an easel, he also worked in his studio from his own photographs. For Donoughe, it was important to interact with the people he met along the way. Such encounters, along with his privileged access, gave him unique insights into his subjects. The resulting paintings offer a delightfully fresh look at many local subjects that we might otherwise take for granted.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website