Mikel Donahue

CAA Member since: 2016
Born: March 19, 1956
Education: University of Tulsa

CAA Awards won:

2025 – Mixed Media Award – Gold
2024 – R. Watson Boots True West Award
2024 – Mixed Media Award – Silver
2023 – Mixed Media Award – Gold
2023 – Mixed Media Award – Silver
2022 – Mixed Media Award – Gold
2022 – Ray Swanson Memorial Award
2022 – Water Solubles Award – Silver
2021 – Anne W. Marion Best Of Show Award
2021 – Mixed Media Award – Gold
2021 – Water Solubles Award – Gold
2019 – Drawing And Other Media – Gold
2019 – Drawing Award – Gold
2019 – Other Media Award – Gold
2019 – Water Solubles Award – Silver
2018 – Other Media Award – Silver
2017 – Water Solubles Award – Silver

A multiple award winning member of the Cowboy Artists of America, artist Mikel Donahue is best known for his impeccable depictions of cowboy life. His drawings and paintings portray ranchers and their livestock during the day-to-day ritual of sun-up to sun-down work on the ranch. What may seem as mundane chores are captured and translated through his artistic style into moments of meaning and reflection.

Donahue, who was born and raised in Tulsa, was taught about life on the ranch by his paternal grandfather who raised cattle in northcentral Oklahoma. It was Donahue's maternal grandfather who exposed him to western art at an early age with memorable trips to Tulsa's Gilcrease Museum and what was then the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. Fascinated both by life on the ranch and the iconic art by the likes of Charlie Russell and Frederic Remington, as an adult, Donahue has become a perfect amalgam of his influences with a life breeding racing quarter horses with his wife Christie on their place outside Broken Arrow and an award-winning career in the arts.

Recent Artwork

Watchful Eyes

Moving The Remuda

Luna de Verano (Summer Moon)

How High The Moon

Hidden Asset

Ain’t The Years, It’s The Miles