Diane Walker Artist Statement 2023

Ever since I was a child I’ve been thirsty for color. I’m actually a synaesthete: I dream in color, I see words and letters in colors, I hear music in colors -- I need color the way other people need a cup of coffee in the morning (though I need that, too!)  As a professional photographer for over 20 years I was particularly known for my sense of color – but then, in 2013, I discovered painting.

When I realized I could get color by painting it, and that I could just paint whatever colors I was craving; that it didn’t necessarily even have to look like anything you might see in real life -- it was as if every tube of acrylic paint became as exciting as a present under the tree on Christmas morning. 

So that’s been my focus for this past 10 years:  testing and learning which colors, tools, techniques, and compositions give me the most pleasure. I have a regular meditation practice, so my art generally invites viewers into a contemplative space that both calms the soul and encourages imagination to flourish. In the end, most of my work is fairly peaceful -- always influenced by my ocean-based environment and what’s going on in the world while at the same time exerting a pull toward a more serene center. Ultimately I believe my most successful paintings are those which evoke an emotional response without proscribing what that might be.

 Diane Walker Biography 2023

 Diane Walker is a playwright, poet, photographer and artist whose colorful abstract paintings reflect the joy she finds in the natural surroundings of the Pacific Northwest. Working primarily in acrylics, she creates pieces that invite the viewer into an open, imaginative and peaceful space.

An award-winning member of Women Painters of Washington, she serves on the board of the Port Ludlow Art League and her work is in the Santa Fe Gallery Association’s Artist Catalog. Diane's paintings have been shown in Seattle’s Columbia Center, in the Red Sky Gallery in Forest Park, in the EAFA Galleries in Kirkland, Mercer Island, and Seattle; in Bainbridge Arts and Crafts; in Port Townsend’s Northwind Arts; in the City of Kent’s Centenial Gallery; in Camano Island’s Matzke Gallery, in Bellingham’s Cordata Gallery, and in juried Art Festivals in Edmonds, Anacortes, Kingston, Mercer Island, Mountlake Terrace, and Shoreline.