Donald was born in 1921 in Seattle, WA. Upon graduation from high school he entered the Cornish School of Art in Seattle. His studies were interrupted by WWII, after which he returned to the Cornish School, followed by the Derbyshire School of Fine Art in Seattle. Later Peel attended the Fazzini School of Art in Rome, Italy. Described in a Seattle Times review as an “uncompromising sharp-focus realist,” Donald received the popular vote award in the first major exhibit he entered, the Seattle Art Museum Annual Exhibition of Northwest Artists in 1952 and again in 1953. He continued to win awards and receive invitations to numerous exhibits, including the Frye Art Museum West Coast Invitational, the Henry Gallery Artists of Washington Invitational and the West Coast Annual Oil painting Exhibit. In 1999, Peel began a “Dream Series” in acrylic on wood panel. The series includes 88 large panels; an amazing accomplishment for an artist in his 70s and 80s who in 2002 was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Donald completed the Dream Series in 2004 when he moved to Vermont to be closer to his family.