Diane Monet's "Impressions of Joy" is still on exhibit at New River Fine Art in Naples. If you haven't taken in Monet's colorful impressionist paintings yet, you should make plans to do so in the very near future.
In the summertime, you’re likely to find Diane Monet tending the flowers in her garden, if not painting the sprays of violet larkspur, yellow-orange marigolds, white zinnia and feathery red asters she groups behind her white vinyl picket fence. The artist loves flowers. Not just because they’re pretty, but because they bring joy “even to men.”
“It is my intent to uplift people,” says Monet. “To give them a refuge from the pressures and stresses that crowd their daily lives.” Flowers are a vehicle toward that end. Not only do they add rich color and texture to her compositions, they are associated with joy and happiness in virtually every culture.
Monet takes her artistry seriously. She doesn’t paint scenes. Rather, she conveys her impression of the heart and soul of a place. “I want to communicate the atmosphere, the feeling of a place. If I don’t get that feeling when I look at the finished work, my name doesn’t go on the canvas,” she says emphatically.
Her quest for paintworthy material - vistas that have the potential to bring joy and beauty to her collectors - is tantamount to a search for the Holy Grail. Monet sojourns regularly to France, Italy, Bermuda and Mexico not only to quell her wanderlust, but to find picturesque locations steeped in painterly tradition. “I went to sketch and photograph some gardens in Nice one time and discovered that Matisse had stayed in the same hotel.”
While Monet does sketch on location, she does most of the heavy lifting in the studio of her home in Mount Vernon, New York. That’s because she applies up to ten layers of paint and between 200 and 300 colors in order to draw out the depth and luminosity for which she is so well regarded. So she takes lots of photographs. “But feelings don’t translate into photographs. The photos just trigger my memory.” Not her visual recollection of the place, but total recall of the feelings the location imprinted on her heart.
For more information on Diane Monet, "Impressions of Joy" or New River Fine Art, please contact either Sales Associate Bob Howe or Gallery Director Martha Schaub at 239-435-4515.
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