Submitted photos

From L-R: Fluid acrylic artist Donna Hentsch mixes paint with a pouring medium to create unique pieces. Hentsch showcasing some of her original artwork. Hentsch uses the excess paint to create paint skin ‘quilts.’

by Mary Kerns
for Burns Times-Herald

The subject of this week’s Artist Behind the Art is Donna Hentsch.

Hentsch is a fluid acrylic artist who just moved to Harney County last year. When she moved here, she was aware of the vast high desert and rock hounding opportunities. What came as a pleasant surprise were the welcoming people and thriving artisan community.

A few years ago, Hentsch started experimenting with acrylic paints as a means of relaxation and for a creative outlet. Her current expression is called fluid acrylic painting. Fluid acrylic painting utilizes a little bit of chemistry, a tad of color theory, and a bit of plain old luck. Unlike traditional artists who use formal artistic training, brushes, and palette knives to manipulate their paint, folks creating with fluid acrylics mix paint with a pouring medium and apply it (pour) to the surface they are working with, often canvas. The results are certainly unique!

Since fluid acrylic painting often results in wasted paint, Hentsch started making glass jewelry, paint skin “quilts,” and other projects to recycle the otherwise wasted pigments. She said that was the beginning of her business, Mountain Shadow Art.

This coming fall, Hentsch hopes to teach some classes and share the joy of fluid acrylic painting with other members of the community.

Her work can be seen at Spark Collaborative Studios in downtown Burns. If you prefer, her work can also be found online at mountainshadowart.com or facebook.com/mountainshadowart.