34 lic courier • february 2013 • www.queenscourier.com art BY ALEXA ALTMAN In a place divided by opposites -- old and new, natural and artificial, solid and ethereal -- pastel artist Donna Levinstone finds balance. A universe at odds take shape in the fine lines and smudges of chalky clouds and smooth sunsets, juxtaposed against steel and glass. “I’ve always been fascinated with the dichotomy between what’s permanent and what’s changing,” she said. The artist, who calls her work “painted photo realism,” has always worked in the realm of pastel landscapes, craving the forgiving and spontaneous nature of the medium, how every stick contains little particles of light so they almost read it. The ease at which a hot pink streak ignites an eggplant sky was fascinating. “Clouds are really hard,” Levinstone said. “You would think it’s easy but it’s like any composition. I never want it to look too stiff. It’s kind of like a dance, which is true of any composition.” While her work captures something seemingly conventional, Levinstone believes the job of a true artist is to take something lacking in interest and make it interesting. “An artist’s mind has the ability to take something real and change it into ten different things,” Levinstone said. She recently released her first series inspired by Long Island City. She loves the architecture dotting the horizon and the light that shimmers around the high rises – a light that’s changed in the years since she began working in LIC. Levinstone has fostered a lifelong love affair with the sky. As a kid, she rode in the backseat of her father Martin’s convertible, hands in the air, the sky at her fingertips. Last year, as Martin, 92, lay on his deathbed, she made him a promise. “I’m going to paint you in my clouds,” she said. His death brought the element of the afclouds Head in the The ever ethereal Donna Levinstone
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