About the Artist

~Susan Diehl ~

Artist Statement

I was born in Sheboygan Wisconsin. My life’s journey into painting began as a small girl. My sister was always reading and I was always drawing. I studied fine art at the University of WI, but feel my real training began when I moved to Seattle WA and met my mentor Ron Lukas who taught in the Russian Impressionist Tradition. While living in the Northwest I met William F. Reese who has had a profound influence on my art career. After 12 years painting in that part of the country, I moved with my husband, artist Doug Diehl and our three children to Phoenix AZ. We joke that we moved from “rust to dust”, “moss to Hoss”. I have definitely had the experience of many different types of landscape to paint. I love to travel to the ocean and paint the beaches and coastlands and to the mountains in the autumn and winter. I love to paint in Wisconsin when I come home to visit my family. Deciding which motif is my favorite is virtually impossible, I am even beginning to love painting the desert. When I am not painting the landscape I paint still life and figures. I love to put it all together in compositions that contain figures in their environment.

I believe that painting is communication without words. The story I have to tell is simply about things that I think are visually beautiful. Whether it be: a particular color combination, a pattern, a light struck object, a time of day, it is my goal to share the beauty that I see in everyday things as well as grand vistas. Laundry, hanging out on the line with the sun shinning through can be as beautiful to me as the Tetons at dawn. My hope is that you will enjoy looking at my work and that my paintings give you an opportunity to have a moment when your looking at them to think about similar times in your life when you have come across something you think is really beautiful.

I also enjoy teaching painting and color classes in workshop format around the country.

One Woman Exhibition - Charles Allis Fine Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI, October 2008

Solo Exhibition - Montelucia Intercontinental Resort & Spa, Paradise Valley, AZ, March 27, 2008

33^rd Annual Western Show- The Mountain Oyster Club, Tucson, AZ. November 2002

“Slice Of Life” Show- Howard/Mandville Gallery, Kirkland, WA. June, 2001

Wadle Gallery

128 W. Palace

Santa Fe, NM 87504

505-983-9219

Montana Trails Gallery

219 E. Main

Boseman, MT 59715

406-586-2166

Oil Painters of America, 14th Annual National Juried Exhibition, Chicago, IL, May 2005

Oil Painters of America, Regional Juried Exhibition, Portland, OR, October, 2004

Oil Painters of America, 13th Annual National Juried Exhibition, Kirkland, WA, May 2004

Puget Sound Country Exhibition of Original Art by NW Painters, Moss Bay Gallery, Kirkland, WA 1994

37^th Annual Edmonds Arts Festival, The Frances Anderson Center, Edmonds, WA 1994

The Eastside Association of fine Arts 18^th Annual Juried Art show, Executive Galleries, Kirkland, WA 1994

Artsplash! Redmond Community Celebration of the Arts Redmond, Community Center, Redmond, WA 1994

Montreal International Visual Arts Competition, Sodarco Museum, Montreal, Canada 1993

The American Artist Professional League 65^th Grand National Exhibition, Salmagundi Club, New York, NY 1993

The Eastside Association of Fine Arts 17^th Annual Jaded Art Show, Executive Galleries, Kirkland, WA 1993

34^th Annual Puget Sound Area Exhibition, Charles and Emma Frye Art Museum, WA 1992

The Eastside Association of Fine Arts 15^th Annual Juried Art Show, Peter Kirk Gallery, Kirkland, WA 1991

Biography

Susan was born on July 20^th, 1957 in Sheboygan WI. From little on, Susan Diehl found a place in drawing she could go for solace and joy. It is from this place that she paints today. Although she studied fine art at the University of Wisconsin, she felt her studies began in earnest when she met Ron Lukas (now art director at Dream Works Studio) and studied in the Russian impressionist style, learning painting skills in the time-honored tradition- mentor to student. For seven years, Susan studied painting while painting signs and raising their children with her husband, Douglas. Susan continued to hone her skills studying with great artists such as Bill Reese and Del Gish. Susan’s subject matter tend to be inspired by mans interaction with nature and the capturing of special archetypal moments in time. Many times a hints of the human’s element will creep into a landscape, a boat by a pond, or a wheel-barrel in the field. She is keenly interested in color and light, shape and pattern. Susan’s versatility and knowledge allows her to paint whatever she wishes, from still life and landscape to her favorite, figures interacting with their environment.

Artist Statement

Education

Santa Fe Focus, Oct. to Dec. 2002

Sheboygan Press, March 11, 2004 "Family Paints a Picture of Artistic Togetherness"

Ron Lukas	Del Gish
William Reese	Sunny Apinchapong