Don Graves was born in Hamilton, graduated with an Honours B. Mus degree in voice and conducting from McGill University. After conducting in Montreal and Toronto he settled in Burlington to begin a 28 year tenure at Sheridan College. He founded the internationally recognized Music Theatre School and later served as Sheridan's dean of the Faculty of Art. He served as the President of the Burlington Fine Art Guild and is currently a member of the Burlington Art Centre, Hamilton Art Council, the Huntsville Art Society, Ontario Plein Air Society and Art in Action. He was recently on the jury for a hHistorica Dominion Institute youth art competition. Don has studied painting with Hamilton artist, V. Jane Gordon and the renowned Ottawa landscape artist, Gordon Harrison.
"Opera, music theatre and visual art tell stories using, in common, colour, movement, form and imagination. My baton has become my brush." Don has exhibited in Burlington, Hamilton, Toronto, Niagara, Ottawa and New York. He supports the Burlington Art Centre, Dundas Valley School of Art, The Canadian Childrens Opera Chorus at their various art auctions.
"I ask people what they see when they look at a landscape be it local, Ottawa Valley or Muskoka. I ask them to let loose their imagination. That's what I do when I paint...release the story that my imagination has created onto the canvas."

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