Ray Donley attended The University of Texas at Austin, graduating summa cum laude in 1981. He completed his Master’s degree in Art History in 1983, focusing in particular on Dutch and Spanish baroque art. His figurative paintings, which have grown out of his deep interest in baroque portraiture, have attracted an intense international cult following. Since 1981 he has been featured in over 50 solo exhibitions in Europe and in the U.S. For one of his U.S. exhibitions, American Arts Quarterly (Spring 2008) praised his "neo-baroque style." In 2002 he won "Primo Premeo" (First Prize) at the prestigious Concorso Biennale Internazionale di Pittura competition held in Sanremo, Italy. In addition, his work was included in the 2012 publication, Contemporary Painters, by Danijela Kracun and Charles McFadden (Schiffer Publishing, 2012). His work has also been included in feature films: The first was The Life of David Gale, a 2002 Alan Parker film starring Kevin Spacey (Mr. Donley also had a cameo role in that film). And his work is scheduled to be featured in the upcoming Damian Harris film, Wilde Wedding, starring John Malkovich and Glenn Close. He and his wife Sharon live in Austin, Texas.