The 54-year-old author and artist has created a 20in by 28.5 inch acrylic piece titled World Cup 2026 Football Icons, using custom-made multi-layer stencils and national flags.
She said: “I’ve got this big canvas at home and I thought, what can I do on this big canvas? A big project that I’ve never done before – and I thought, do the top six football icons.”
The finished work features England’s Declan Rice alongside international stars Kylian Mbappé, Lamine Yamal, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar.
They were chosen with help from one of her football-mad sons.
The stencil features footballers Declan Rice, Kylian Mbappe, Lamine YAmal, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar (Image: Donna Pace)
“I said, I want to do the top six. Who would you recommend? He suggested those particular footballers,” Donna said. “I said, okay then, I’ll get the national flags, I’ll create it in Canva – and that’s how it all came about really.”
An Arsenal supporter originally from south-east London, Donna has lived in Dorset for more than a decade and only turned to art full-time last year after stepping back from running a community interest company supporting people affected by domestic abuse.
“I single-handedly ran that for seven years supporting anyone affected by domestic abuse,” she said. “Because obviously being a survivor myself, that can take its toll on you every day when you’re kind of single-handedly running a company. So I decided to become more creative and got painting just because it was cathartic and it was healing.”
Working without a studio, she creates all her pieces from a small corner of her bedroom.
Side view of her World Cup inspired work (Image: Donna Pace)
“I don’t have a garage or a studio or a shed. It literally is in the corner of my bedroom – that’s it,” she said. “I’m starting from grassroots and I’ve got this dedicated space in my room and that’s all for my arts and my crafts.”
Over the past year Donna has sold three Pop Art Music Legend stencil paintings – two Amy Winehouse portraits and one of Jimi Hendrix, which was bought by an American musician for his studio.
She said the response to her work has taken her by surprise: “I sold a few pieces which completely took me by surprise and I thought, okay, people are taking this seriously.” Reflecting on her new career, she added: “It just goes to show that age is just a number and we are never too old to reinvent ourselves.”
Alongside her football portraits – which already include Thierry Henry and Mo Salah – Donna has built a following for her vibrant fluid art, created with acrylic pours and even a dustpan.
“Fluid art is basically just acrylic paint and you put this pouring medium into it which thins it out,” she explained. “You just basically put different colours into a cup or a beaker and you pour it onto canvas and you tilt it at different angles and you get different results.” One 20-second video of a dustpan pour has attracted more than 120,000 views on TikTok. “I was like, okay, that’s trending – I need to do some more dustpan art,” she said.
Next up, Donna will be taking her fluid art to the Dorset Arts and Crafts Showcase at The Purbeck School in Wareham from July 31 to August 4, while she ponders her next football subject.