I was already drawing and painting as a very young child. One of my earliest memories is from my first days of school. Each child was given an easel with an enormous drawing pad. I was thrilled because I never had such big paper. We were supposed to draw our house and family. But I wanted to draw a cat. I can still see this cat: sitting, in profile, with a gigantic tail that spiraled like a snail. Eventually the teacher came by, “You were supposed to draw a house.” But I was prepared for that. “I did,” I replied by pointing to a tiny house the size of a postage stamp at the lower corner. A fresh little kid or an independent young artist?
Another episode from about the same time: the neighbors gave me a paint box as a present. (So obviously I already had a reputation as an artist.) I tore open the box and shouted enthusiastically “brown!” Because that was very important to me. I liked to paint landscapes and animals, objects that are often brown, and I was frustrated that my colors did not contain brown. I remember this incident because my mother scolded me: it was rude of me not to thank them, to just be preoccupied with the paints. But the neighbors just laughed and said my enthusiasm was thanks enough. Color has always been important to me. It wasn’t until much later that I taught myself to mix colors. Today I hardly ever use any paint straight out of the tube. And I don’t like pastels because no matter how many colors you have, you never have the right shade.
I wanted to be an “artist” when I grew up. (Or a veterinarian: I always loved animals.) But over the years I developed other interests and there were long dry spells where I didn’t do anything with art. As a teenager I copied pictures and photos: with oil paints, pastels, charcoal or pencil. I still have an oil painting dated 1962. I probably repainted a calendar photo, so not very creative, but the picture is not bad. A few years ago I visited my Aunt Grace, the last surviving member of my father’s siblings. I was surprised that she still had my sketch of her father framed on the bedside table. I was able to produce recognizable faces as a teenager. My grandpa, “Pop” – his first name was “Art”, or in full “Arthur Nadeau”. Nice, this connection with the word “Art”.
I have never majored in art – although I did take a lot of art history courses – but have taken drawing and painting courses from time to time. I certainly learned a lot from these courses, but I can hardly say that I learned my art from a certain person. I have two master’s degrees, the first in German and later in computer science. Computers also became my profession. Now that I am retired I have more time to devote to painting.
My full name Carole Donna Nadeau. Nadeau is my maiden name. Even during the time when I had had a different married name, I signed my pictures with a variation of “Nadeau”. Recently I simplified the signature to “Nadó”, partly because many Austrians cannot pronounce “Nadeau” and partly because a shorter signature is easier to paint. No one in my family – unfortunately all of them have passed away – was a professional artist. But everyone had a creative side. I especially want to mention my brother. Doug was 8 years older than me and always encouraged me: to study, to discover the world and to be creative. He gave me gifts to expand my horizons. He was the first in the family to go to college and encouraged me to do the same. In later years he also created art: paintings, sculptures and glass installations. For his funeral, some of his friends set up his whole house as an art exhibit, because there was something to marvel at in every room. In his later years he also came out as a transsexual and called himself “Donna”. A few years after his death I divorced and resumed my maiden name. I was missing a middle name. So I honored him / her by taking “Donna” as my middle name.
I am an American. I have only been living in Salzburg since 2015. I learned German in high school and could already speak it before I came to Germany. During my first course of study, I spent time in Salzburg, Berlin and Vienna. Then I returned to the US for 35 years. Foreign languages are a passion of mine. (I’m learning Italian now.) When I retired, I decided to live somewhere where I could speak a foreign language every day. My first thought was Spanish. But then I decided on German again. Why I landed specifically in Salzburg has to do with a love story, one that ended badly. Without that Salzburg connection I probably would have gone somewhere else. But I am very happy here and I feel half-Austrian. The other half is and will remain American, whether I like it or not. My last address in America was in the state of Colorado, where we also have a kind of traditional dress as western or cowboy. I owned a lot of such clothes because I was a square dancer.
Once in Salzburg I only found my way back to art very slowly. I did attend a course at the Summer Academy in the first summer of 2015. That was a great experience and also resulted in friendship with another artist. My biggest problem: Salzburg was too beautiful for me. My art is always very local. I didn’t want to paint cheesy picture postcards. Also, in the first few years I only had a limited space to paint. I would have preferred to paint with oil, but that doesn’t work in a normal apartment where you don’t have a separate room. So I tried acrylic paints for the first time and had to learn how to use them. In the meantime, I completed a two-year course at the Leonardo Academy in Mattsee, where I mostly painted with acrylics. Now have an apartment that has a separate studio – a real luxury. I can go to the studio whenever I want, paint a little, listen to music and lock everything again without having to clean up. I am really fortunate!