About Gambyte Art & Design
Gambyte Art & Design
Dr Donna Winderbank-Scott
Growing up in West Sussex in the South of England. Donna has painted, drawn and created for as long as she can remember.
Supported by her parents with a constant supply of cardboard, scissors and glue, she spent her childhood covering the floor in tiny pieces of paper, and trying out every modelling, painting and craft technique she could find. She was taught dressmaking and sewing by her mother and grandmother, and provided with computer equipment and drawing software by her father.
However it was her grandfather George Lewis who showed her the basics of perspective and drawing trees when she was just about able to hold a pencil, explaining how to accurately copy line and shape and construct realistic images.
So she went from doodling cartoon animals in her school books to copying photographs from album covers, to a project to recreate Leighton’s famous Romeo and Juliet painting from the copy of a notepad, simply because she couldn’t find a poster of it anywhere!
Donna is a full time Consultant Neonatologist in Southampton, combining her love of medicine, education and improvement work with her creative side whenever possible.
After starting work as a junior doctor, she continued to paint and draw, with gift commissions for various departments she has trained within, and digital design work for posters, presentations, logos and book illustrations, alongside her clinical work.
She also had a brief experiment with animation for projects related to optimum umbilical cord clamping. Moving away from realism, Donna then had a period working on abstract fantasy and science fiction paintings with the occasional commission for horses, and designs for children.
Donna started photography after getting bored during free lesson periods whilst at 6th Form College, using traditional black and white film / “wet” developing techniques for her C&G Qualification, before moving fully digital in later years and developing further skills in digital photomanipulation and design. The photography was a good balance to her other science A-levels, although she probably spent more time in the darkroom as she did studying!
Whilst at university at Imperial College London, studying medicine, lectures gave her ample time to develop her skills in creative design and “doodling” – experimenting with shape, line and colour balance in her sketchbook, whilst simultaneously taking notes. Later, this skill evolved into mind mapping and illustrating the content of the lecture or presentation in real time; an ability that has proven very useful throughout her medical training, and justified the proportion of her student loan spent on art materials and stationery!
In her final year of medical school, she was commissioned by Sir. Ara Darzi at St. Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, to create a series of oil paintings and a wall mural for the Academic Surgical Department. She also designed the crest for the Imperial School of Medicine Alumni.
Donna initially trained to be a surgeon, before defecting to Paediatrics and then to Neonatology. She now works full time as a consultant neonatologist for Southampton Universities NHS Trust in the Princess Anne Hospital Neonatal Unit.
She has designed the unit logo and produced posters for the Trust during the Covid epidemic – for example to promote social distancing. She has designed several logos for other medical organisations and started the LEGO project with Senior Sister Liz Clarke.
This is a project to create educational resources for nurses and doctors working within Neonatology using games, toys such as building blocks, and creating a model of the neonatal unit out of Lego™ for simulation training purposes.
She has exhibited at various craft fairs in the local region, the Art Wall at Kirdford Stores, and helped set up a local art group in the village in which she lives. She also ran an Art club at the local primary school for several years.
In addition to painting, she enjoys many crafts including modelling in polymer clay, cake decorating, collage, jewellery making and macrame, dressmaking and embroidery, creating habitats and houses/furniture for he children’s toys, and more recently, painting “reborn” dolls.
2006 series of fantasy paintings depicting an ancient alien civilization on an abandoned planet. These paintings use large brushes and palette knives to suggest detail using oil paints, rather than deliberate re-creation of detail with fine brushes.
Artwork Commissions
Donna now continues to work on commissions (both digital and acrylic/oil) in addition to her personal projects.
She is also focusing on personalised artwork created for children in a variety of media including acrylic paintings, collage, watercolour and mixed media. Take a look at the Gambyte Art Shop for more details.