It’s a balmy Monday afternoon along the avenue and the new fine art gallery, Fusion Fine Art, is bumping YG Marley’s “Praise Jah in the Moonlight” with the studio doors wide …
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It’s a balmy Monday afternoon along the avenue and the new fine art gallery, Fusion Fine Art, is bumping YG Marley’s “Praise Jah in the Moonlight” with the studio doors wide open.
Bringing together the work of artists Denise Kilmer and Bradley Donaldson, the new contemporary art gallery offers a bright, welcoming space for the community to enjoy.
“This is all about having fun,” Donaldson said, an accomplished resin artist and former co-owner of Last Art Gallery in McKinney, Texas.
Kilmer is an oil and acrylic abstract artist who has helmed several art galleries around the Valley, including on Roosevelt Street and Grand Avenue in downtown Phoenix and on Main Street in Scottsdale.
Within the last year, Donaldson and Kilmer decided to ditch their studios to live in Fountain Hills and create Fusion Fine Art, offering a new way to experience beauty, color and light.
The artists
“A one-man wrecking crew,” as he describes himself, Donaldson was a “military brat” who lived and moved all over the country. Splitting his time between Scottsdale and McKinney, Donaldson retired from the car business and began pursuing his art full-time.
“I started showing my work and people started buying it,” Donaldson said, whose resins have evolved in texture, color and complexity over the years. Geographic changes have also affected his work, says Donaldson, as the cold Texas winters made it nearly impossible to work with the temperature-sensitive resin.
“Resins don’t really work well below 50 degrees,” he said. “Once we hit December, January, February, I reversed painted on plexiglass.”
Donaldson also experiments with iridescent glass and building and painting furniture, all of which are featured throughout the gallery.
Bradley Donaldson is a resin artist. (Independent Newsmedia/Cyrus Guccione)
Kilmer, who has been painting for the last 30 years, works with oil-based paint and densely layered acrylic gel to create her large, abstract art on stretched canvas.
“I just paint big,” Kilmer said, an Arizona native who enjoys painting on the floor, working on multiple pieces at the same time.
As an abstract artist, Kilmer says her work and her color pairings are everything but deliberate.
“I don’t think anything about it, I just do it,” she said.
Throughout the gallery are pieces that Donaldson and Kilmer have worked on together, blending their individual styles and techniques seamlessly.
The two met when Donaldson tried to pitch his art to Kilmer at her Scottsdale studio.
“She said no,” Donaldson laughed. “But years and years later, we actually started dating and I brought her to Dallas and showed her work there.”
The couple took the leap to start their shared fine art gallery which officially opened Feb. 22 on the Avenue of the Fountains.
Denise Kilmer is an abstract artist. (Independent Newsmedia/Cyrus Guccione)
New art monthly
At Fusion Fine Art, Kilmer and Donaldson will have new art hanging often with featured guest artists every month.
This month, one of Fountain Hills sculptor Brian Schader’s eye-catching fire tables sits prominently in the center of the studio, and the work of Mexico City-based Artist Leticia Herrera is also on display from her visually striking “Walkers” series.
Fully remodeled with new paint, lights and a private studio in the back for Kilmer and Donaldson to work, the two artists are eager to be part of the growing Fountain Hills artistic landscape.
“Of all the art communities, this one felt like the best potential for us, and we love the small town,” Donaldson said. “These people are so talented and every Wednesday they have the farmers market and the art along the avenue and all the things they do around the fountain are fantastic.”
Fusion Fine Art will take part in the upcoming Wine Walk along the Avenue Friday, April 5.
Fusion Fine Art is located at 16858 E. Avenue of the Fountains, #104. The studio is open Monday and Tuesday by appointment, Wednesday and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For more information or to commission art from Bradley Donaldson or Denise Kilmer, call 602-525-0643 or send an email to fusionfineartfh@gmail.com.
We invite our readers to submit their civil comments on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Cyrus Guccione can be reached at cguccione@iniusa.org.
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