artists

John Donovan

John Donovan was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, and spent his childhood in Calgary, Toronto and Montreal. A talented and versatile musician, he concentrated his studies on the classical guitar. This led to his establishing his own guitar studio. He also taught the instrument at Vanier College, the Université du Québec à Montréal and Concordia University. As well, he co-founded and conducted the Donovan Chorale, a prize-winning concert choir in Montreal.
In the 1970s and 1980s, he also pursued a long-standing interest in visual art, apprenticing with painter Alan Harrison for a six-year period. Soon he was exhibiting and selling his paintings in galleries in Montreal and Saint John, New Brunswick. In the mid-1980s, inspired by the painters in an exhibition entitled “Jewish Artists and Modernity” at the Saidye Bronfman Centre in Montreal, Donovan realized that nearly none of this body of work was represented in Canadian public collections. He knew many of these painters, and that led to his decision to become an art dealer. He became a co-founder of Galerie Opus 2 in 1987, and later Galerie Citron in Montreal. As gallery owner, he successfully placed over 150 art works by Montreal Jewish artists in public collections such as the National Gallery of Canada, The Canadian War Museum, The National Archives and the Musée de Québec.
The financial recession of 1992-1993 lead Donovan to return to music. He established an international agency for performing musicians called Long Reach Fine Arts inc. For the next 15 years, he and his son Jamie promoted artists from Canada and many other countries, securing work for them in concert venues across Canada, the United States, Europe, Central and South America. In recent years, he has returned to full-time painting.

Rail Yard, First Snow	Chestnut Canoe	Parking Garage

Wharf