For example, Donahue began using naval teaching models from the early 1940’s as still life objects in drawings and paintings in the seventies. In subsequent years, midtown Manhattan architecture became the inspiration for constructing three-dimensional objects made from metal and wood. These object were then sized with a white undercoating, and were regarded as blank canvases, which would then be painted with a variety of colors.

Further along, models of oil platforms were constructed, painted, and used as still life for drawings and paintings.