Diane Sandline
Diane Sandlin’s paintings, filled with lines, gestures and judicious color, offer a slice-of-life glimpse of a woman who celebrates life as a journey. Freedom. Energy. Palimpsest. Quiet beauty of the ordinary. Wabi-Sabi. Meditative. These expressions are all evident in her non-representational paintings. The journey, full of twists and turns, informs her artistic practice and describes her own expressive path.
Like the pieces she paints, Diane’s journey to this place has meandered from a creative childhood in a small Texas town to a residence in picturesque Germany and then on to a corporate career centered in Dallas and San Francisco where she specialized in risk management insurance solutions for large multi-national companies. Returning to Austin, Texas, Diane became immersed in the art world first with textiles. Never one to shy away from challenges, she became a founding member of an Austin non-profit centered in textile arts, Austin Fiber Artists, and served as their president for two years while organizing member exhibitions in various venues – corporate, airport and schools. She then became executive director for an international non-profit, Surface Design Association, where in addition to the administrative and leadership responsibilities, she planned conferences, exhibits and oversaw the publication of the quarterly Surface Design Journal. During this time, Diane studied with Jane Dunnewold’s Art Cloth Mastery Program, based in San Antonio, from 2010-2012.
Textiles evolved into mixed media painting and more studies along the way with Nicholas Wilton’s Creative Visionary Path Program (2017, 2018), Pamela Caughey (2018) and other notables in acrylic painting. Continual learning, through the Art2Life Academy and taking frequent workshops, is her key to staying fresh with content and style. Diane is a participant in juried art exhibits and has many of her works in private collections. She is a resident artist at Austin Art Space Studios and Gallery and supports Austin art endeavors by participating in Austin EAST, Austin WEST studio tours and as a regular studio volunteer with Art from the Streets.
For Diane, painting is totally absorbing and captivating. She keeps building layers on her work until the piece is ready to tell a story. Then it’s completed. The challenge of artistic expression draws her like a magnet into more and more experimentation in conveying ideas. And so, her journey continues.?
My art is informed by sights, sounds, nature, conversations, poetry, music, wise people, travel and culture in general – indirectly, all influences in some form, creep into my non-representational paintings. My intent is to capture the sensation of what’s unseen – the feel of the wind, the warmth of the sun, the vastness of space and the room to explore. Sensations captured in paint.
I work intuitively, letting these elements bubble forth into the finished piece. As the artist, I try to guide the process while letting it flow naturally as it often twists and turns in unexpected and productive ways.
A very physical process, paintings take time, attention, research and a willingness to risk and try new approaches. Work on canvas and wood panels involve multiple layers of paint – sometimes 15 or more. Each one builds on the other so that there’s an imbedded history, adding to complexity and mystery. In addition to the expected brushes and palette knives, my tools include a hammer, screwdriver, scraper, dowel, pens, inks, charcoal and even a brick!
Ultimately, my goal is to create visual poems for the viewer – a subject to be studied first by the “loud conversation” from across the room where the piece first attracts attention and then to a “quiet conversation” full of nuance and detail for the closer view.
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