Nadine Koster O'Donovan

Nadine O’Donovan, was a versatile artist, enjoyed painting many subjects from Portraits to Landscapes. Her Inspirations and ideas came from living in the best of two worlds - Tucson and Seattle. While in Tucson, she painted many colorful Southwestern scenes but her palette changed with her subject matter when she went North for the Summer.

Ms. O’Donovan was a Seattle native, and attended Cornish School of Arts while attending Bremerton High School, graduating in 1947. After submitting her portfolio, she was the youngest art student ever to be admitted to the Art Center of Los Angeles. Becoming disenchanted with L.A. she continued her art education at UC and California Schools of Arts in Oakland and there earned a BFA. At the age of 22 she taught art at San Jose State University and later started her commercial art career at the San Jose Mercury newspaper as an artist and then art director for the newspaper. She quit the paper after 7 years to start her own advertising business “ Designing Woman”, where she concentrated on fashion illustration and promotion of fine fashion stores in the San Francisco Bay area. 

After 25 years in business and (40 years in California), she moved back to Seattle and refocused towards the fine arts. Painting with some of Seattle’s finest artists, she has won many Best of Show, purchased awards, and recognition for her work. She won the Grand Prize at the Oro Valley Art Show in Arizona where her work hangs at the City Hall. 

She is survived by two sons, Greg Mathews of Washington State, and Kevin O’Donovan of California, two grandsons Bradley Mathews and Raymond Mathews of Washington, and two grandchildren Ian and Emma Mathews of Washington.