Marven Donati was born in Italy. As a child, she loved drawing and painting, and at fourteen, she won a provincial competition in Puglia, the prize being a week-long trip to Rome to visit museums, galleries, churches and ruins. This represented a milestone that reinforced in her the desire and dream to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, and to become a painter.
When she completed high school, she realized that her parents would never allow her to study away from home, and she was channeled first to become a teacher, then a social worker.
In the early 1960s she emigrated to Canada with her husband, and they lived first in Kitimat in northern B.C., then in Bathurst, New Brunswick. With her husband's encouragement, she enrolled at Moncton University and completed her B.A. in fine Arts. During her residence in New Brunswick, she fulfilled her childhood dream of being a full-time painter, and produced an extensive body of art work.
Her career was interrupted when her husband died suddenly. As well as two adult daughters living in B.C., she had a 10-year-old son to raise alone. She decided to relocate, to be closer to her family, and before moving, sold all her paintings, ceramics and prints.
In Vancouver, she went back to University, received her B.C. Teaching Certificate and completed an M.A. She taught art and modem languages for ten years at Templeton High School, and took early retirement so she could resume painting full time. In 2011 she moved to Ottawa where currently resides.
Extroverted in her work and reclusive in her private life, she spends hours in her studio daily, and travels miles pacing back and forth while she works. Throughout her many experiences, she has never lost her exuberance for life and her joy for painting.
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