Statement

I am a painter and a printmaker. Though I used to paint in oil, I now work with water based paints, especially acrylic but also gouache, tempera and transparent water color. My work with acrylic is primarily through building up layers of transparent glazes until the final depth of desired color is achieved. I also love to draw and I consider my drawings an extension of my paintings. I draw with all the usual media - graphite, charcoal, conte' crayon, ink - but also love to work with crayon. With mixed-media I include work with collage.

As a printmaker I do only hand-pulled prints. I do not release giclee' reproductions of my work. I work with most printmaking techniques involving relief, intaglio and (occasionally) silk screen, but no lithography. I especially love the challenges of creating multi-color reduction relief prints and intaglio color viscosity prints. I do not add color to my prints by hand painting; all color in the prints comes from the inked plate. Most of my prints are in small editions. Editioning is a challenge for the printmaker, but the joy is knowing that each print is also an "original."

With painting, drawing, mixed-media and printmaking my subject matter has ranged widely, but increasingly it has dealt with spacial issues: concepts of direction, expansion, position, motion, axial turning, opening/closing or edges for example. Thus my "style" is usually non-objective or abstract, (but not always). My works are usually quietly evocative - even if brightly colored and even if they contain "subject matter”. I continue to use this quote from Ben Shan's The Shape of Content: "I believe that if it were left to artists to choose their own labels, most would choose none”.

About

Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, Diane Divelbess is a painter and printmaker whose undergraduate work was done at Scripps College and her MFA at the Claremont Graduate School (now University) in Southern California. She did further work in Education at California State University Los Angeles and Fresno; and as a printmaker she studied with Nick DeMatties (intaglio viscosity printmaking) and Jack Duganne (silk screen). She was a member of the Art Faculty at Cal Poly University Pomona and chaired the Art Department for eight years. She is a past president and life member of the Los Angeles Printmaking Society. In California her work has been exhibited most recently at Beretich Gallery and on Whidbey Island at her studio and gallery in Langley.

While living on Whidbey Island, WA she has been a member of the Island Arts Council and a participant in the annual Artists Open Studio Tours.  She has also been for many years a member of the Island County Fair Association - including several years as President - and continues serving as Superintendent of the Fine Arts Exhibition. She is currently Chairperson of the City of Langley Arts Commission.