Featured Artist Diane Turner

Enjoy the exquisite portfolio of award-winning painter Diane Turner, who masterfully captures the human figure. See more of her portfolio by visiting her website.

 

 

Becoming a realist figurative painter was an innate calling. I’ve always been fascinated with depicting humans. They are with their animals on occasion, but are almost always in imagined settings.

 

 

My people sometimes find themselves in humorous situations. At other times they are caught in deep reflection in a place where they enjoy heavenly solitude.

 

 

A major body of work is my Triplets Series. I wanted to glimpse into the secret lives of three sisters who all share the same exact birthday and DNA. I got the idea for this from the close relationship I have with my older sister and wondered what it would be like to have been a member in a tribe of multiples.

 

 

The three paintings in the series use the same model repeated from reference photos I staged and took myself. The three sisters are immersed in a spiritual connection with the natural world. They are disconnected from each other, lost in their own thoughts, and react to their surroundings at a moment in time when each sister experiences nature’s sacred power from her own perspective. It can be a joyful moment, one of total despair, or one of pure trivial musings.

 

 

Either the models are dressed in their own clothing or I borrow, buy, or rent it. They pose in locations I’ve sometimes scouted out on horseback on my farm and surrounding area. After poring over the many images I’ve taken, I create a composite of the final composition using multiple photos.

 

 

Then I make a finished drawing and transfer the major reference points on to the canvas, panel, or in the case of my gouache paintings, Bristol board, with graphite. My painting method starts with establishing the darkest darks. When using oil paint I apply it straight out of the tube in a very thin layer. One or more subsequent and also thin layers are needed until the result is opaque.

 

 

I try to give the environment the same consideration to detail as the figures. By paying careful attention to soft versus hard edges, warm and cool light, and depth of field, the figures and their environment are physically, emotionally and visually intertwined.

 

 

My professional freelance art career started after graduating from the Tyler School of Art of Temple University in Philadelphia with a BFA degree and receiving The Art Director’s Club of Philadelphia’s Gold Medal for my senior portfolio. I worked in the corporate world for 30+ years specializing in product design concept art as well as illustration for the collectibles industry. During that time I continued to pursue my artistic passion by painting independent works.

 

 

Deciding later to concentrate entirely on fine art, I started painting full-time in 2007. I’ve been very fortunate to have exhibited and received awards in many local, statewide and international juried shows.

 

Diane Turner invites you to follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

 

 

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