Peruse Creative Tallahassee Online Gallery

COCA (Council on Culture and Arts) has an ongoing program called “Art in Public Places” and I feel it is a very fine thing for the city I call my home: Tallahassee, Florida. The airport has a space which is included in this category, as well as City Hall, which has an art gallery where I just participated in an exhibit called “Tallahassee Proud” the beginning three months of this year (pre-coronavirus). Another show is scheduled to be held July 1st to September 14th. Now with the pandemic, I am sad to say COCA’s annual exhibit Creative Tallahassee is not going to be held at the City Hall Art Gallery as usual, but the show must (and does) go on! This year’s popular exhibit, which welcomes Big Bend artists working in all media, is going to be virtual and includes 93 artists with 254 works in which I am included. I am happy to say I have three pieces in the exhibit, mentioning it is listed alphabetically by artist. The three acrylic paintings are: “Walking Downtown No. 2,” “Clock on Park” and “Quarter Moon Dresses Up.” The following is the link for the online gallery for you to peruse and I ask you to pay particular attention to my paintings!

Creative Tallahassee Online Exhibit

Walking Downtown No. 2, Diane Dyal, Acrylic, 18″x24″, (c) 2020

Clock on Park, Diane Dyal, Acrylic, 24″x30″, (c) 2019

Quarter Moon Dresses Up, Diane Dyal, Acrylic, 22″x28″, (c) 2019

Masks for “Flattening the Curve”

I am presenting another fundraiser to all my blog readers. This one is called Flattening the Curve and it is to benefit 621 Gallery in Railroad Square Art Park, Tallahassee. Like so many businesses in the time of coronavirus, the gallery is having difficulty. One of the board members came up with an excellent idea of having local artists donate their talents to create unique hand-made masks to sell online to support the gallery as well as increase awareness about the necessity to wear masks to help “flatten the curve.”

I have created two masks based on paintings I have done of my two favorite subjects: Oliver Freaks Out and Stripedie Reaches Out. Above are the final masks, done in acrylics, with signatures as collectibles, complete with ear pieces. Just a note: some of these masks for sale as more decorative than functional and can be used as pieces of art.

I am including photos to show the evolution of creation. The sketches on the muslin along with the reference photos, and of course, the guide to how the final masks will be sewn so as not the get anything important cropped off. Shown is a mannequin head with how the mask will looks on, too.

Here is a link to the 621 Gallery website that has thumbnails of all the masks to view and click on to access more info. Go to the mask you choose and you will find a PayPal button. The fundraiser only lasts until the end of June. Thanks for your support!

Flattening the Curve 621 Gallery Fundraiser

Artopia Will Go On…Online!

Here I am with mask on, painting in hand, at Big Bend Cares in Tallahassee donating for the annual Artopia fundraiser. This big charity event benefits HIV/AIDS and is one of the most popular events in town, usually held at the civic center. This year, Artopia will be held online because of the coronavirus. The virus will not stop the generous art community from donating or the great folks at Big Bend Cares from helping these folks in need. One of the people from Big Bend is Caitlin Steiner, shown above, accepting my donation called “Tally Station Study.” This is an acrylic piece on paper, framed, 18″x24″ with a very, very reasonable minimum bid of $5! (Valued at $150.)

Good friend and fellow artist, Ann Kozeliski, is shown here with her multiple donations of her signature style of Sumi-E paintings, which is Chinese ink painting. So many local artists have donated to this great cause. Another feature to not only promote the Artopia artists but to highlight Artopia is COCA’s contribution to the cause by posting something called “Behind the Scenes” a more in-depth look at the artists of Artopia.

I have included the link directly below for Behind the Scenes where I have been featured if you are interested in finding out a bit more. And then below that I have included the link for the Artopia online auction. You may bid in advance but the auction is Saturday, June 27, 2020 at 6 p.m. I highly encourage all you art lovers out there to take advantage of this opportunity to buy great art at very reasonable prices and to support an excellent cause. Thanks!

Behind the Scenes with COCA: Diane Dyal Paintings

Artopia Online Auction

River’s Edge to Carry My Cityscapes

Beautiful River’s Edge Gallery in Apalachicola on Commerce Street near the water is now open for business again. With everyone still battling the coronavirus, the art gallery hours are limited to Wednesday to Saturday 10:30 am to 5:00 pm with Sunday by appointment. The owner is now carrying my colorful cityscapes. Here is how the story goes: I am Facebook friends with the gallery owner, Donna Ingle, and she noticed my postings of the cityscapes I had done of the Tallahassee area and liked what she saw. She mentioned to a mutual friend of ours that she was interested in having me paint and sell Apalachicola cityscapes in her gallery, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I spent an enjoyable afternoon one day with Donna going around the quaint Gulf town of Apalach taking reference photos to paint by. I came up with quite a number of good images and produced three paintings to start with. If you have ever been to Apalachicola, you might recognize the scenes. These are my versions of three local landmarks.

Seafood Shack, 11″x14″, (c) 2020

Corner Lounge, 11″x14″, (c) 2020

Community Garden, 11″x14″, (c)2020

Hopefully art lovers and visitors to the Apalachicola art gallery will be interested in my style of painting, they will sell, and I will produce more in the future. Just in case, I have a number of photographs ready and am looking forward to painting “Boss Oyster” a famous restaurant there with very colorful signage in front. So, everyone stay safe and do something positive to keep yourselves busy while in isolation…I will be painting!

Quarter Moon Times Two

First of all, I’d like to welcome my new blog subscribers. I am happy to announce I had quite a few new folks sign up and am also happy to know so many people are interested in my art. Thanks so much!

Another good thing happened, despite this terrible pandemic we are experiencing, I reached out to Quarter Moon Imports on Lake Ella in Tallahassee, a great little eclectic gift shop that sells my greeting cards, to have the owner consider resuming some business we had started before the virus. So…I asked her if she was still interested in getting postcards printed with the painting I did of the shop on them…and she is! I have posted the painting (which is the study) on the left above. I have submitted the order to the printer and can’t wait to receive the postcards!

In addition, I have posted the companion or final painting called Quarter Moon Dresses Up on the right. (A study is like a practice run and then you create the final painting, but in this case I liked the way they both came out!) This one will be used in the Creative Tallahassee exhibit sponsored by COCA (Council on Culture and Arts). This exhibit usually is in City Hall but because of circumstances it will be an online exhibit. This painting and two others should be included and it will begin on July 1st. I will keep you guys posted on this new opportunity.

So, there you have it: Quarter Moon x 2. It is one of my favorite paintings and I hope you folks enjoyed this post and hopefully the postcards will sell and the other version will be chosen to be exhibited! Stay safe.

Changing the Way We Do Things

It is the last day of April 2020 and well over a month into the Corona Virus pandemic. It is unfortunate (to put it mildly) but some of us have been using this time to get things done. As I said in my last blog I have updated my site. Please check out the menu items which are listed similar to the way websites have them listed. And I must mention now, as everyone knows, we have had to change the way we do things world-wide. I was originally going to participate in the 621 Gallery Member’s Exhibit. Since things are different now the exhibit is online and I am happy to say I have two paintings on display: “Morning Routine” and “Scooterville.” Please check out this online exhibit by clicking on the following link and stay safe!

621 Gallery Online Members Exhibit

Please Stay Safe Folks

Well, I must say this is a good time to create but it is very unfortunate we have this terrible situation worldwide. I hope everyone including my blog readers stay safe during this dangerous time. During the upcoming months I will be taking this time to stay indoors so much more, if not constantly, to paint and update my blog. You may not notice big changes, but I will be revamping it as well as learning more about promotion in general and SEO (search engine optimization). I am fortunate to have a Digital Marketing friend help me out. So folks, I’ll blog as soon as I can and please stay safe!!!

 

Venues for my Greeting Cards!

Starting the end of last year and the beginning of this new year, I am selling my greeting cards in two new gift shops! One being Quarter Moon Imports, an eclectic little shop on Lake Ella in Tallahassee. The other is 621 Art Gallery Gift Shop, a popular gallery stop on the First Friday Gallery Hop in the local art district, Railroad Square. I am so happy that my art is getting out to the public in this somewhat different vehicle. So…if you can’t afford a painting…buy a greeting card! Support the arts folks!

Love of Tallahassee Continues

Tallahassee Proud

I am “proud” to be in this COCA exhibit in City Hall Art Gallery called “Tallahassee Proud.” Here I am posing with my painting Contemporary Gallery, a favorite Railroad Square Art Park stop on the First Friday Gallery Hop. I am also including pictures of the set-up where I ran into fellow Tally artist, Dan Taylor, and here he is with his abstract painting “Springtime Tallahassee.” When leaving I ironically ran into the local, brightly-colored trolley which I have a painting of in the exhibit called “Trolley Sign.”

In addition to posting photographs of my paintings, I am happy to share some more fellow Tallahassee artists’ work: Natalia Andreeva: oil painting, Katie Clark: photography, and Yoshiko Murdick: watercolor. This exhibit runs from January 29th to April 13th and I recommend it to all art lovers as well as fans of Tally!

Final Painting of 2019. Happy New Year!

Transportation as Inspiration

This painting is entitled “Scooterville” and it was the last painting I did in 2019. Not to say it was the only painting of this subject I painted. I tried and tried again.

It was inspired by the shop called Scooterville on Pensacola Street in Tallahassee, FL. I drove by and saw a pink scooter and just loved it! Then I painted the study below.

Deciding it wasn’t in keeping with my style, which does not consist of pastel colors, I decided to concentrate on the more intense colors, seen in the reference photo below.

So, I tried again. First creating this study and then the painting shown.

Although I loved the study (top of the two paintings above) I did not like the final painting I came up with. Just to make it clear, the study is a “practice run” on paper and not meant to be the final product. So, since I didn’t like the painting on canvas that I came up with, I tried yet again! (Which is the one shown at the top of the blog, but I will also show it again here.)

This serves to illustrate what I go through to create a painting. Not all paintings require this much attention but this one did. I did learn something through this process (which is just as important as coming up with a good or great finished piece). I like the first one (the study…not pastel though), and spontaneity is the most important quality to me.