I very, very proud to be exhibiting at the Florida State University College of Medicine coming up in the months of August and September 2022. First of all, I want to thank my friend Maria for making it possible. I have surveyed the space and decided upon my Tallahassee cityscapes as the subject matter for the show. I will be calling the exhibit “Hanging with the Locals.” This highlights my love of city living as well as my fondness for the town I now call home, Tallahassee.
Below I am including a time-lapse YouTube video I did of the above painting, Westcott Fountain Fun, which is 22″x28″ and done in acrylics…this video is fun to watch! Check it out:
I am also including the sketch I did for this piece, not only on the pad as a preliminary view, but on the canvas as well. And now, I’ll attempt a little joke: if you think the person at the fountain in the painting is me, it’s not, I believe it looks like Rod Stewart!!!
Good morning folks…or good evening…wherever you are in the world. But to start off, what I must say, in my part of the world it’s spring and time for new beginnings. I’d like to veer off the subject matter of paintings for a second and say I’ve planted flowers in my yard for the first time this spring and they are coming up. It’s a miracle!
I can also be happy this spring about the increase in commissions of people asking me to paint custom paintings for them. The first one this year, is “Cat Mom” who I have also affectionately called “Patches” just for fun. (I thought I’d name the kitten!) This painting was requested by Marie from Westminster Oaks in Tallahassee, where you might remember I had a solo exhibit the end of last year. As you might image it went very well. I say this because I sold two paintings at the exhibit as well as receiving this commission a couple of months later. To start off, I go by a reference photo then I make a basic sketch (below).
This blog is not only dedicated to spring (which I am enjoying) it’s also to show the evolution of my painting process, which I think may be interesting to some of you. As you can see from the photos I’ve included, I go step-by-step. I take it one like section at a time and I’m including a couple more shots of the painting in progress. To see the final product, it’s at the top of the blog, along with Marie who I’m very happy to say loved her painting and I also had to pleasure of helping her hang it in her home.
So, whether you are decorating your home this spring with new paintings…or planting beautiful flowers in your yard…have a great time/a creative time/a rejuvenating time. Do a little something for you (including staying safe and staying tuned to my blog) from me, Stripedie, Oliver and Patches (lol)!!!
Hey folks! This image might be familiar to you. Yes, it’s my logo! Below, I will show you a jpeg of my actual logo with the type and everything, but this is the painting and reference photograph it was based on. I call this painting “Downtown Trolley.” I painted it in 2017 and it was sold right away to a City Commissioner and now hangs in the Tallahassee City Hall. I would like to share with you my inspiration for the painting, or should I say, give credit to the person who gave me the idea.
I was painting minis on the sidewalk of downtown for my friend Ann Kozeliski when she worked at LeMoyne Arts for a promotion of art in public of some sort. She stopped by to see how I was doing and the trolley that takes passengers around town for free was parked on the side of the road waiting for people to board. Ann had said it would be a good image for me to paint…and I agreed…and this started my current fairly-long-running series I have been enjoying painting of Tallahassee icons/landmarks/cityscapes.
I am proud to say it was one of my first paintings to sell, and as I said, I am also proud it hangs in the City Hall. I decided to created my logo out of this painting, as it is colorful, graphic and has meaning to me. Shown below you will not only see my logo, but applications I have used it on.
Be on the lookout for my logo on business cards around town, or maybe Facebook, YouTube or Instagram; and stop by Feeling Art Collective in Railroad Square to check out my current Tallahassee landmarks.
Stay safe folks, but get out and enjoy that beautiful Spring weather!
I’ve been very been since the beginning of this year working on a new series. Not just more paintings, a series. For those of you who are not sure what I mean, this is a cohesive body of work that has a theme. I am very excited about it! It not only has a purpose to me, it is different from my usual work. It is a bit smaller in size. It is on paper (that will be framed) and not on canvas. It is more free-flowing and spontaneous and less realistic. I certainly consider it expressionism.
Shown above is the preliminary sketch (on an 18″x24″ pad) for “Railroad Bees.” I had a lot of fun with this one! And let me take a moment to say, that is part of what my new style/series is all about: HAVING FUN. I find life difficult enough without making what you want to do/what you love, difficult. (Such as making it so, so detailed in an effort to try and try to make it super realistic but while driving yourself crazy!?!)
This painting is based on a sign of a shop in Railroad Square Art Park. It is a FUN sign. The colors are great. The composition is great. The bees are great. I enjoyed the process and have also included the reference photo to show you what I mean. And if you remember, I always go by a photo when creating.
Soon enough, after hearing from the galleries I have submitted my series to, I will reveal it. P.S. I already showed the finished painting to the shop owner last week and I believe she really liked it!
Give thanks the virus is now letting up, but still: stay safe and stay tuned.
Here we are! Anna Edson McBride and I are at Feeling Art Collective in Railroad Square Art Park, Tallahassee, FL. I started exhibiting/selling my paintings there this past December (starting with First Friday, of course) and quickly became friends with the bubbly Anna, owner of the gallery/studio space as well as an artist herself. She loves to paint angels in mixed media, which are just fabulous. (I also did an article about Feeling Art and Anna that appeared in the Chronicle section of the local newspaper, the Tallahassee Democrat, that I posted in the PRESS section of my blog called Feeling excited about exhibit at Feeling Art Collective in Railroad Square).
I am attaching selected photos of the folks at Feeling Art that I have had the pleasure to meet, also artists as well as friendly people, who work in the studio space portion of this pleasant gallery where many people hang out “absorbing” the positive vibes. There’s Jasmine, an artist, who sells cartoon-like black and white sketches; Ward, another artist, who paints beautiful seascapes and sunsets in addition to Billy, the cat-whisperer, who paints and draws fabulous creatures. Other artists exhibit there as well, but I just haven’t had the pleasure to meet them yet…more about that to come in the future!
I will be at Feeling Art for the next several months, and I invite all you locals to stop by. I am pleased to say I have already sold two painting via this outlet. Shown is me on First Friday in the beginning of January 2022 and despite the cold weather it was a good night ( I sold some greeting cards and mini painting!). Check out this and the other photos (also shown a few from around the Art Park) and to all my blog readers: please stay safe and stay tuned!!!
Merry Christmas to all my regular readers as well as those who occasionally check my blog out. Although not everyone celebrates Christmas, I hope everyone can participate in some festivities that bring light into their lives during this crazy and special time of year.
This post features something special to me (and I think special to my friend and her husband as well). I created “mini” paintings of my childhood friend’s cats as gifts (who, I am proud to say, is still my friend to this very day). The custom mini cat portraits are 2-1/2″ square and done in acrylics and are attached to wooden easels. I have been painting these for years and they are lots of fun to do.
I will keep this post short, but just wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays and share my personal holiday experience with all of you. Shown below is another mini: my table top tree with mostly handmade ornaments I have been collecting over the past few years that I’ve lived in Tallahassee.
Love and light to you all from Diane, Stripedie and Oliver!!!
Happy Holidays and sorry I haven’t posted in while. Been very, very busy not only with the holidays, but my sixty-first birthday as well as my longest-running solo exhibit that I have ever participated in! It has been running since the beginning of October, and will continue until the end of December at Westminster Oaks Retirement Home in Tallahassee. Here I am pictured with the coordinators of the exhibit, including Marie Cowart (far left), the woman in charge…many thanks to her.
I am proud to be exhibiting here and must give thanks to my art friend, Ann Kozeliski, for making it possible by providing the connections. I was pleased to meet Betty, shown looking through the greeting cards I included for the folks to buy. Also shown is George, the maintenance man, setting up the “cat portion” of the exhibit. Marie had her choice of all the paintings I had brought to show, and decided upon the cats and the cityscapes because of their bright, bold nature.
The exhibit is not open to the public unfortunately, but only to residents due to the lingering virus. Thanks for keeping in touch folks, stay safe and I’ll be posting again soon! (Spoiler Alert: It will be about the upcoming exhibit I have happening in December at Feeling Art Collective…)
Hello folks, I hope you have been enjoying this fall! Since I have been exhibiting much more lately, I have also been reflecting on my past exhibits. Specifically, my very first exhibit. Or should I say my very first exhibits PLURAL. What I mean by this, is there was three “firsts.” The FIRST first was my submission to 621 Gallery’s Annual Art Auction fundraiser in 2007. This painting was unusual because it was my very first experimentation with painting, which was “splash” painting. This style was inspired by one of my favorites, Jackson Pollock. Although, Pollock did “drip” painting, I felt inspired by the spontaneity and what I perceive as a measure of wildness of what he did and I was therefore moved to create paintings by splashing paint on the canvas. (I made quite a mess on the walls of my apartment!). The painting below, “Salmon and Green Rain” was acrylic abstract and was accepted to the 621 auction, but I don’t really consider it my FIRST gallery submission because 621 was not juried, and anything was accepted into this fundraiser.
My painting above, “Kitten Twins,” was my true FIRST first. It was accepted into the juried show called Cat Life Invitational at LeMoyne Arts in 2011. This was quite an honor since I hadn’t been painting that long and my style, although more realistic than the abstracts I was formerly creating, it was still primitive in style and not very realistic in nature. But, after attending the exhibit, and as you can see from the photo I have included, all types of varieties of cats were accepted into this excellent exhibit. It was an honor to have been chosen to participate. I was surprised by now friend, Ann Kozeliski, who worked at LeMoyne and informed me at the Chain of Parks Art Festival that I was accepted into this cat exhibit making me very happy indeed!
Finally, my THIRD first was at a gallery in Railroad Square Art Park called Renditions, An Art Space. This was my finest moment as a beginning artist. I had always been interested in competitions as a younger woman and when I became a painter it was no different. I had received an email in my inbox announcing the possibility of being chosen for participation in an exhibit at Renditions. I decided to submit the required three paintings. One of which was a cat. No…I was not chosen for this exhibit. BUT…the owner of the gallery, Ned Stacey, had wrote me a personal email stating he really liked my cat paintings and would like me to have a solo exhibit of just my cat paintings at Renditions, An Art Space in February, 2013. WOW! A solo exhibit. I had been painting cats for several years and had many to submit and I jumped at the chance. Therefore, this was my “third” first: a solo exhibit. I have included a photo taken at the opening below called “Stripedie Pollock”, taken by my friend, Heather Lanham.
Fast forward to the present. My latest exhibit is at Westminster Oaks Retirement Center. I am participating in the opening reception on Tuesday, October 12, 2021. I will post all about this soon, of course including a bunch of pictures! Stay safe and stay tuned…
“Diane Dyal Paints Baby Oliver” Time-Lapse Video of me painting fundraiser donation.
Well, folks, I am very pleased to participate in the upcoming LIVE fundraiser for the local cats and kittens put on by Fat Cat Cafe and Fat Cat Books in Tallahassee. This art auction fundraiser, called For Cats’ Sake, will be held live for the first time in years because of the virus and I am certainly looking forward to it. I have encouraged all my “art friends” to donate and for those of you interested in going to the event, the art will be a variety of themes and not all cat-related. (Although I prefer the cat stuff!) So…that being said…the video I have included shows me painting MY donation for the cats: “Baby Oliver No. 2.” It’s 16″x20″ and acrylic and I’ve also included a photo of the finished product below. Just a note: this is my first attempt at a time-lapse video, which was lots of fun to do, as well as using my new tripod! The actual painting took approximately one and a half hours to do and the video is 21 seconds! This cute shot of my two cats was taken when I first found Oliver at my door, homeless and meowing, three years ago. Stripes took him under his wing and they are great friends til this day.
For you locals, the deadline to donate is tomorrow, Sunday, September 26th, and art can be dropped off at the following locations:
Fat Cat Cafe 2901 East Park Avenue #2600 Tallahassee, FL 32301 Wed. to Sun. 12 pm to 6 pm
Fat Cat Books 647 McDonnell Drive Tallahassee, FL 32310 Wed., Thurs. 2 pm to 6 pm Fri. 2 pm to 8 pm Sat. 11 am to 8 pm Sun. 11 am to 6 pm
The event itself is on Saturday, October 9th from 4 pm to 7 pm at the following:
American Legion Hall 229 Lake Ella Drive Tallahassee, FL 32303
I am happy to donate and happy to attend the event and I hope to see you local art and cat lovers out on that Saturday next month! In the meantime, stay safe…
Here it is folks, almost fall, and I’m very, very busy! The virus is “back” but things still move forward. Things started opening up, and I got busy: doing pet portraits, cityscapes and, as you saw in my last post, even exhibiting at new locations! In the photo above I am hard at work put in the details on my last custom pet portrait for one of my favorite and best collectors. It is a rendition of her late, beloved dog, Willow. The painting is entitled “Willow the Mastiff” is 12″x12″ and acrylic. Below is the final product.
Of course, anyone of you (or even your friends!) who would like a pet portrait, I am happy to oblige. They make great gifts… In the meantime, I am getting ready for more exhibits. I will be showing at Westminster Oaks retirement home in Tallahassee with a solo show entitled “Diane Dyal Follows the Painted Path” during October, November and December. And, I am happy to say, I will also be back at Feeling Art Collective in the month of December. This venue is in Railroad Square Art Park and I am hoping…hoping…for a good crowd for the holidays (yes, folks, gotta prepare for the holidays now!). So, stay healthy and safe and support your local artists wherever you live!
Diane Dyal Paintings 