Painting My Way Through Life: Pittsburgh (And Beyond) Through The Eyes of Artist Ron Donoughe

Photo by Maddy Lafferty.

The door of 208 Main St. in Lawrenceville opens and I’m greeted by Ron Donoughe. 

The artist welcomes me up a spiraling staircase of the old building he calls his studio, which has experienced many phases of life. The slight dilapidation boasts old-time charm – weathered wood flooring, ghostly outlines of doorframes, mismatched, aged wallpaper of grapes and glasses and flower pots next to exposed brick and crumbled drywall, an enormous industrial elevator that still works – until we land on the second floor, which has housed Donoughe’s art studio for over 25 years. 

I’m immediately immersed in the life and work of Donoughe. His plein-air (or, open-air and often landscape) paintings adorn the walls. They depict houses, streets, alleyways and even steel mills of Pittsburgh and Donoughe’s hometown in Cambria County —  where he travels once or twice a week to paint.

His art can be found in public and private collections, as well as the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art and the University Museum at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He’s highly awarded, even earning a proclamation from the city of Pittsburgh for Ron Donoughe Day —Aug. 1, 2018 — and his work appears in books and films.

One of Donoughe’s notable accomplishments is his 12-month journey in 2014 painting all 90 neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, which resulted in the book “90 Pittsburgh Neighborhoods: The paintings and experiences of artist Ron Donoughe” and the collection being acquired by the Heinz History Center.

I sat with Donoughe to chat about his artistic journey and the neighborhood he calls home to both his studio and himself – Lawrenceville.