Donna Bruton

Donna Bruton (May 3, 1954 – September 9, 2012; née Donnamaria Bruton, also known as Donna Bruton-Coutis) was an American painter, academic administrator, and educator. She was a faculty member at the Rhode Island School of Design, and was known for her mixed media paintings and collages.

Early life and education Donnamaria Bruton was born on May 3, 1954, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her father was baseball player Bill Bruton, and her grandfather on her mother's side was Negro leagues player Judy Johnson.

She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Michigan State University, and a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University. She studied under painter Edward Loper and exhibited with Dell Pryor in Detroit.

Bruton's style, described by The Providence Journal as "a loose free-flowing style.... but with a strong realistic streak," makes use of her drawing, painting and collage skills. Many of her collages employ mundane objects as the key to getting at a deeper memory or concept. Her first solo exhibit was in 1993 in Austin, Texas, and was well received. Later in her career, the size of her works expanded, many to canvases .

Bruton received the Blanche E. Colman Award from BNY Mellon in 1999. and the Gwanjiu Museum in Korea, as well as several private collections.