Artist Profile

Diane Green

Tiburon, CA

Images from daily life, color relationships and urban landscapes—these are visual cues that trigger my imagination. Inspired by the work of European painters, especially early Renaissance artists, I create my own private worlds on canvas from layered translucent memories. I imagine places that harbor secrets.

Early on, I realized I had a visual intelligence. My kindergarten teacher noted on my report card that I seemed most happy when coloring. Gorgeous color combinations moved me; fine paintings gave me visceral reactions. As a child in Austin, TX, we lived next to an Italian family who had Piranesi etchings hanging in their living room. We weren’t allowed into that room very often, and the mystery and remoteness of those architectural structures still stand out in my memory.

Much of my free time as a young adult was spent in art museums, and during my twenties I worked at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., for several years. Then my career took a completely different turn.

Years later, when I finally picked up a brush and found my way to oils, I fell in love. Oil painting has given me a clear sense of purpose. On canvas I feel free to reveal my interior world. My inner dialog propels the creative process. As a yoga teacher, I guide others to enter that realm of sensing and feeling. To paint is to be entirely present.

Many teachers have mentored me including Chester Arnold and Jack Scott. Masters who have informed my painting sensibilities include Cezanne, Diebenkorn, Sargeant, Velazquez, and Fabritius.

My propensity for rich, multi-layered Mediterranean colors likely derives from the palette I absorbed as a young adult from a year spent in Nice, France, and another in Bologna, Italy, in light-filled landscapes.

I serve as Arts Exhibition Chair for the Belvedere Tiburon Library Gallery. Twelve years ago, I began a local art study group, Jay DeFeo Salon, that continues with ongoing research and discussion about artists and B.A. exhibitions. I am a proud artist member of MarinMOCA and am honored to have been asked to serve on the Executive Director’s Advisory Council.

My paintings hang in private collections in Texas, New York, Philadelphia, California and England.