Artist: Donald Zolan
Media: Oil on Canvas
Size: 30x40
Date: 1997
Although Zolan grew up in the Chicago suburbs, he was very familiar with the Heartland driving to and from art shows to exhibit his paintings. During those drives he always took time to stop at roadside stands, talk to the farmers, and often, he would drive up to the farm and ask the farmer if he could take pictures. In Piglet Roundup, Zolan captured the essence of family farm life with a little boy helping out his Dad and having a lot of fun.
Artist: Donald Zolan
Media: Oil on Canvas
Size: 30x30
Date: 1997
A Special Bond not only portrays American farm life but it truly captures the heart of a child’s innocence, purity and love. One bright early August morning, Zolan began drawing his conceptual ideas but needed more background material. Always very meticulous with regards to authenticity in each painting, he got in his old antique car and took a drive through the Lancaster county countryside photographing everything and anything related to farm life. Later that day a new painting was born.
Artist: Donald Zolan
Media: Oil on Canvas and Digital Media
Size: 30x30
Date: 2002
Christmas on the farm is a magical time when most little farm boys dream of having their own toy tractor. Zolan captures a special moment with a little boy and his puppy playing in the snow on a bright winter day. A John Deere version of this painting was created a few years later.
Artist: Donald Zolan
Media: Oil on Canvas and Digital Media
Size: 30x40
Date: 1998
Raised in the Midwest, it was a Zolan family tradition in the summer to eat corn smothered in hot butter and salt. It was only natural for Zolan to capture a part of the American fall harvest on canvas. He skillfully used the contrast of light and shadow with halation effects throughout the painting especially in the detail of the corn stalks. Every July Fourth, one could always count on Zolan saying: “knee high by the Fourth of July” as Zolan and his wife biked through the Pennsylvania countryside.
Artist: Donald Zolan
Media: Oil on Canvas
Size: 30x40
Date: 1998
A spin off from Grant Wood’s classic iconic painting, American Gothic, Zolan’s Heartland Promise portrays the new generation of young American farmers and symbolizes the Midwest tradition of family values and farming.
Artist: Donald Zolan
Media: Oil on Canvas
Size: 30x40
Date: 1998
Gardening and planting flowers and vegetables were a favorite pastime of Zolan when he was not in the studio painting.
He loved watching the seeds grow into mature plants. His love and fascination with nature is prevalent in many of his paintings.
Artist: Donald Zolan
Media: Oil on Canvas and Digital Media
Size: 30x30
Date: 2007
Two little boys enjoying the simple pleasures of swinging on a tire swing on a bright clear summer Midwestern day is a scene reminiscent from Zolan’s childhood at Kiwanis Park. Zolan painted the bark of the trees white just as they were on Prairie Avenue in Brookfield, Illinois, his boyhood home.
Artist: Donald Zolan
Media: Oil on Canvas and Digital Media
Size: 10x14
Date: 2010
Since tractors are a part of everyday farm life, Zolan started co-branding his farm art with International Harvester in 2008. It is rare to find adults in a Zolan child painting but from time to time one sees a Grandpa in the background as they were important in his early years. Both Grandpa Judson and Grandpa Zolan were instrumental in the development of Zolan’s creativity not only in the arts but in teaching him to be a master of all trades. They left an imprint on this young man that would last his lifetime.
Artist: Donald Zolan
Media: Oil on Canvas and Digital Media
Size: 30x30
Date: 2003
Winter was never one of Zolan’s favorite seasons as it always meant shoveling the long driveway from the lake effect snow of Lake Michigan in bitter cold temperatures. But, Zolan understood that winter farm chores were just as important as the summer chores. In 2003, while living in Connecticut, there was a major nor’easter winter storm that dumped two feet of snow on the land which then inspired Zolan to create a winter farm scene with a John Deere tractor.
Artist: Donald Zolan
Media: Oil on Canvas
Size: 30x40
Date: 1998
Zolan came up with the title for this painting perhaps as he fondly recalled his own childhood always too busy to play. He loved to help Grandpa Judson with his printing presses and he was always ready to help his Dad fix things around the house.