Donna Kurtenbach Paintings

07/08/2025

Summer Evening, oil, $250 1 3/4” profile

07/08/2025

The Old Farmhouse, oil, 30x20, 3/4” profile, $300.00

07/08/2025

Beth, oil, 1 3/4” profile, place under The People of Kinyambu category, $650-SOLD

12/06/2022

These paintings are a tribute to the courage, humanity, and most of all the vision of the women of Umoja. Painted for a charity event which was an opportunity to support these amazing women who recognize the value of retaining the best of the past and embracing the promise of a bright future for women and girls.

The Story of Umoja

The Samburu Village of Umoja- a Women's Only Village Where Women Rule- is located in the hot, arid countryside of northern Kenya. In February 2020, three friends and I stayed at Umoja's rustic lodge just outside of the Samburu National Game Reserve. Like all tourists, we were "on safari." It was here in the heat of the afternoon that we were told the story of Umoja by founder and matriarch, Rebecca Lolosoli. She speaks softly, humbly, and sometimes with humor explaining that in traditional Samburu culture women have no rights. They cannot own property. Domestic violence is common as is female ge***al mutilation and forced marriage.

Determined to establish a better life, in 1990 Rebecca and 15 remarkable women asked the Kenya government to register Umoja UASO Women's Co-operative as a vehicle for the sale of their beadwork. Shortly after facing threats, assault, and robbery by village men jealous of their success, the group decided to found a women's-only village to establish collective security. They were successful in convincing the government to grant them land. Despite hardships over the years, they have never looked back. In addition to providing economic opportunities, the group dedicated itself to advancing women's health and rights. To date, Umoja UASO remains a safe haven for girls/women. Women come and go as their domestic situation dictates. The village has 38 members.
Our visit to the village was moving and inspiring. Following a hot, dusty path through the shrubbery, we heard the strong, choral voices of the Umoja women before we saw them in their full traditional regalia. We were sung in and out of the village by the women.

The construction and maintenance of the village uphold age-old traditional methods and styles. Traditional materials are used. Women cooperate to build and maintain the homes. This is also viewed as an investment in social security, whereby individuals help one another and their families. The use of modern materials/style detracting from the traditional cultural look and feel are restricted.
Umoja women are celebrities on the web having been photographed, interviewed, videoed, and written about by a number of large news networks. They operate a small, rustic tourist lodge as a cooperative, a kindergarten in the village, and an academy for girls and boys in Umoja and surrounding communities. They are involved in community outreach for women's rights and sell their beadwork.

Umoja has secured land. Their vision is to invest in schools at all levels for surrounding communities and to establish a women/girls' refuge and clinic.

12/06/2022

12/06/2022

This series of portrait paintings were inspired by the people of the village of Kinyambu, Kenya.

The paintings are based on photographs taken during an opportunity I had, along with three friends, as well as friend and organizer, Connie Gerwing to visit and volunteer at Kinyambu Primary School in February/March 2015. During that period we created murals and seating for the reading corner in the library that had earlier been constructed with funds raised by Cardinal Leger School in Saskatoon. We also worked with the community to construct a long fence to enclose the school property.

We were welcomed, praised, and thanked at every turn. The community came in large numbers to construct the fence and to see what was happening in the library. These projects were accomplished with extremely limited resources, but with an abundance of physical exertion, community spirit, and cooperation.

I remember kindness, shyness, hardship, physical strength, curiosity, high spirits, talent, ambition, and generosity. In their quiet, dignified manner the people's pride in themselves and in their children is evident.

To read more about the Kinyambu project, go to the Friends of Kinyambu Blog.

12/05/2022

Welcome to a place to put my paintings. Here's a bit of my background.

I was born in 1950 and grew up in rural Saskatchewan. I loved home and its secure simple living close to nature. My dad, a small farmer, with a large heart and a global vision had a lifelong passion for learning, social justice, and peace. Influenced by this worldview, I pursued a university education in sociology and then a career in social service in Alberta and later Saskatoon.

I raised three children on my own. This was a defining life experience that strengthened my affinity for the mother-child relationship. In my late forties, after a 20-year career in corrections, I needed rejuvenation. I began to explore my creative side mainly through love for my old home, which I regarded as my palette. In September 2000, I completed a series of decorative painting workshops through Ritins Studio in Toronto. In 2010, I received an Interior Design and Decoration Associate Diploma (with merit) through correspondence from RhoDec International. Referred to as a "fairy tale cottage" my home was featured in SaskatoonHome Magazine (Summer Edition, 2015). Throughout this time, I was painting periodically, showing and selling paintings through various Saskatoon venues. I completed several portrait painting commissions. My paintings appear on the cover and in the novel, In My Mother's Garden authored by my aunt, Connie Kurtenbach, available in local libraries.

In 2015, I had the opportunity through a friend to design and complete art murals for a school library in the village of Kinyambu, Kenya. I was deeply moved by this experience, and it resulted in my first solo show of a collection of portraits of the people of that village. Sale proceeds benefited Kinyambu Primary School. In 2019, I completed illustrations for The Playground Mist, a book written for primary school students byKinyambu teacher Sylvester Msembi. In 2020 back in Kenya with friends, the small group was privileged to stay at Umoja (an all-women Samburu village whose motto is "where women rule"). There we heard the women's stories of oppression, hardships, resilience, and vision. Of course, I just had to paint it!

I am mainly self-taught but have benefited from local workshops/artists. Art books are a great resource and the teaching videos of Australian artist Andrew Tischler. My oil paintings are predominantly figurative and portraiture. My subjects are often women and children portrayed with qualities of strength, warmth, and tenderness.