Art Portfolio

Raina McDonald's art portfolio of prints and drawings features three different projects that ranged over the years 2010 to 2014. Her three portfolios are her Luna Series, 2010-2014, and Trans Canada Prints.

In 2013, she collaborated with her husband Ruben Irons, an artist blacksmith, on the Fencelines project. In 2017, she collaborated with Fenn Martin, a ceramic artist, on their Attachment project.

2017

Fencelines

R&R Handmade with artist blacksmith Ruben Irons.

A unique line of hand forged objects, sculptural and often function. Our intention through R&R Handmade is to passionately contribute to a new economy – one that celebrates creative expression, hand skills and lasting quality while focusing on the regeneration of the Earth. We aim to create useful and beautiful pieces to enliven your day-to-day flow.

Fencelines, an installation at the Mary E. Black Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 2017. Steel, ceramic, bone, charcoal. Collaboration with Fenn Martin & Ruben Irons.

2014

Luna Series

See beyond veils, through portals, and into vast unfamiliar spaces. Allow reality to morph within the comforting cycle of the moon.

Raina McDonald's 2014 Luna Series portfolio includes five lithography, drypoint, and mixed media drawings:

  • “Whole / Hole”, 16.25″ x 18″, lithography, drypoint and mixed media drawing, 2014
  • “Moon on Cue”, 14″ x 14″, lithography, drypoint and mixed media drawing, 2014
  • “Arrival”, 14″ x 14″, lithography, drypoint and mixed media drawing, 2014
  • “Inside and Beyond”, 14″ x 14″, lithography, drypoint and mixed media drawing, 2014
  • “Weathered Moon”, 23″ x 10″, lithography, drypoint and mixed media drawing, 2014

2013

Attachment

Attachment with ceramic artist Fenn Martin.

A body of work that contemplates rural objects, relationships, and processes, as they attach to the transforming rural landscape. In this series of low-relief pieces, we explore different ways of connecting past to present, people to land, ceramic to steel.

The five pieces in this collaborative project are the shear, hitch, cycle, bundle, and reap.

2010-2014

2010-14

Raina McDonald's 2010-14 portfolio includes three pieces of art. The first piece was done in 2010 as an etching and the last two pieces were done in 2014 using lithography and drypoint.

The three drawings in this collection are:

  • “A Feather”, collaged lithography, drypoint, soft ground, & mixed-media drawing, 10″ x 7.5″, 2014
  • “A Choice”, collaged lithography & drypoint, 7″ x 5″, 2014
  • “Far Afield”, etching, 6” x 3.5”, 2010

2010

Trans Canada Prints

Each piece was printed from the same matrix: a weathered Trans Canada sign that I unearthed from the woods of my property. Working dark ink into the cracks, grooves and textures of the old sign, I then rolled colour onto the surface. With a damp piece of paper on top of the inked sign, I ran it through a hand-cranked etching press. The prepared plate acted as a stamp, imprinting the life of the sign into the paper, highlighting marks that time and circumstance have left behind. These marks, evidence of accumulated experience, inspire my work. Different colour application from print to print reflects shifting perspectives of the same accumulated experience.

Raina McDonald's Trans Canada Prints portfolio includes the following pieces:

  • Trans Canada #1, 2010, intaglio monoprint, 30″ x 22″
  • Trans Canada #2, intaglio monoprints, 30” x 22” each, 2010
  • Trans Canada #3, intaglio monoprints, 30” x 22” each, 2010