(This review was written on March 31, 2007 for this website.)

Lawrenceville is a neighborhood that is bubbling over with artists. It is exciting when one of those artists rises to the top of the cauldron, and a book can be purchased depicting his or her work. Ron Donoughe is the author of this book on some of his own pieces. . It serves as a catalogue for his one-man show, which took place last winter at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

“Plein air” is a style of art where the painting is done outdoors rather than inside a studio. This style began to be popular in the 1860’s and became more so in the 1870’s. According to the book, it continued in popularity into the twentieth century. Essence of Pittsburgh tells a little bit about the style, but the bulk of the book is rightfully on Donoughe’s works.

Some of Donoughe’s paintings include Lawrenceville sites. However, his works also depict various places in Pittsburgh such as the Herron Hill, Heinz Field, Bloomfield, etc. Various suburbs such as Carnegie, Fox Chapel, Aspinwall and others are represented in this fine book. Even communities farther away such as Little Washington, Ligonier, and Settler’s Cabin Park are represented.

Among the Lawrenceville paintings are scenes titled 34th Street, Allegheny Saint, Entrance to Eternity, Bancroft Street, Butler Street Morning, Christ Appears in Lawrenceville, plus many more. There is a wide range of topics from religious to landscapes to urban. Pity for example, is an example of the religious. It is an image of the Pieta monument found is St. Mary’s Cemetery in Lawrenceville. Winter Blue is an oil painting that is an example of one of his landscapes. The urban works include Demo Site, Phipps Renovation, and Destruction of St. Francis (another Lawrenceville painting).

Gary Grimes and Frank Kurtik have provided an excellent introduction to this book, which should not be skipped over.

If the book has any drawbacks, they can be found in the layout. Incomplete captions are placed with the main photos and the photos are repeated toward the back of the book with more complete captions. This is puzzling. Why waste paper repeating the photos and the readers’ time searching for more information when the information could very easily fit with the photos the first time around.

Another fault with the book can be found in pages 49-57. They are extra large pages that are folded with the outer edges tightly tucked into the spine. This gives the impression that the book is missing pages. However, with a little searching the reader will soon find that the missing pages are not really missing at all. They are merely hidden.

Despite these minor drawbacks the book is great fun if you try to figure out the location of the paintings without reading the captions. It is a collection of masterpieces at your fingertips, and it is well worth the $18.00 price tag. Don’t delay. Add it to your collection today.