DIANE BURCHETTE-GOMEZ diane@artistdiane.com
No AI here. these paintings come straight out of my soul. I paint in oil the slow way, underpainting my figures (model photos that I took).
All of the paintings posted on this site are available for sale (although some may be out at a show). Contact me to see larger images and prices.
To learn more about my painting process, send me a note!
Experience the Creative Vision of DIANE BURCHETTE-GOMEZ
Who is Diane Burchette-Gomez?
Born in the South to Southern parents, Diane Burchette-Gomez grew up in the Midwest and longed for the coast, any coast. That describes Diane’s early years. As an adult she has lived in the East and Left coasts as well as the Gulf coast. Diane explains, “Port cities have a larger variety of cultures to feed my soul and influence my art.”
She is a graduate of Parsons’ School of Design for Illustration and Eugene Lang College for Social Psychology. After college she worked for her family’s Gourmet Food and Gift company, Aunt Sally’s Praline Shops, in New Orleans, Louisiana; meanwhile, creating art for herself.
She has always been artistic however 38 years of life experiences led Diane to oil painting. “The feel of my brush gliding across a taut canvas, like it was ice skating, is intoxicating.” She became obsessed and quit her job to paint full time. Diane began showing at art fairs and shows around the country as well as teaching privately.
As Fate would have it, her adventurous spirit led to cracking a cervical vertebrae which brought her burgeoning painting career to a halt. (She was T-boned by a delivery van on her motorcycle, 10 years of martial arts and finally a mechanical bull in a bar. "No regrets.") Exceedingly bad medical guidance from a team of neurology students at CU Anschutz and DenverHealth resulted in prolonging recovery for almost a decade. "Maybe I moved or may be the MRI machine wasn't calibrated. In any case, the radiologist reported the scan was fine when it was so blurry nothing could be seen. No one else looked or they ignored it and missed the damage to my C5-C6 vertebrae. I had a broken neck and they told me to exercise more?!" Unimaginable pain led Diane to quit working, quit painting, quit everything to rest and heal.
Now in her 50's, remarried and living in Sonoma County, California, Diane is once again showing her paintings and riding a tricked out but slower scooter. Trained as a classical oil painter in the methods of Leonardo DaVinci by Frank Covino, Diane is telling stories that reach down to the core of humanity. Every painting is a snippet of a psychological portrait of the multifaceted beings that we all are. Diane portrays emotions in paint.
Diane’s Artist’s Statement
There is a symbiotic relationship between what I am feeling when I encounter a memorable place or a striking model. That emotion is what I am painting, even in my landscapes. It’s my way of talking to the world as if to say, ‘haven’t you felt this way too?’ There is always a story.
Like Leonardo, experimenting can be expected, but my figures always start with a charcoal drawing and an underpainting of lead white with color layered on top. Geometry plays a major hidden role as well, using the golden ratio to plan compositions. Every painting is a sort of meditation and I learn something new about oil painting, myself and the world.
I am compelled to paint. It is who I am. Master Artists Daniel Greene and Frank Covino taught me the basics. Martial Artist Skip Hancock taught me that it's not what I do in a class that's going to make me great; what I practice on my own will make me a master painter. That idea started my personal drive to keep learning and experimenting.
The artists that influenced me the most are Bougeureau, Leonardo and Jacques Louis David. There is a family story told by my great grandfather to my grandmother to me that Jacques Louis David was an ancestor or ours. Several of my family members have tried to verify it but were unsuccessful. Knowing my family, if it is true, it may have been an illicit affair. We are no strangers to scandal, (ha ha) and the two families were in the same place at the same time. It doesn't really matter now but when I was younger, the thought of the lineage really influenced me. I thought I really could be a great artist one day.
BTW, I create classical oil paintings but I love art of many other styles as well. There is room for all of us and we should be kind to each other.
All of my paintings are created by me using places that I have visited and featuring models that I personally photographed. The compositions come from my imagination. Nothing has been created using AI and nothing touches my canvas but a charcoal pencil and a paint brush. (Except maybe my finger, a T-square and a golden ratio caliper.)
Diane Burchette-Gomez