Hi! I'm so glad you're here! My name is Diana Kay and to put it simply: I love painting! 

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I came to art late in life but have always loved it and dreamed of doing exactly what I am doing today. Aside from a few classes in college in my 40’s and some classes at The Academy of Realistic Art, now Gage Academy, I was basically a self-taught artist. Before those classes, I worked in charcoal and pencil for myself or for friends upon request. 

I have always loved color. When I paint, I think more about color than I do subject matter. I started painting in oil and working with colored pencil and even taught myself watercolor.  When I was first starting, I was a borderline realist painter, painting mainly animal portraits and still life.  I got introduced to Pastel through a workshop, in Taos, New Mexico and I was hooked! I fell in love with the immediate gratification of the medium. I liked getting up close and personal with it and using my fingers. I especially love the richness of the pastel colors that medium can produce. Right after winning first place in an art competition, I left the art scene for a while due to health issues and life. During that time, I only painted commissioned animal portraits. However, it was during this break I taught myself watercolor.

During COVID, I got the opportunity to dive back into my art and I took some workshops in pastel online. In one workshop, I was introduced to abstract florals, the medium of acrylics, and abstract art. I felt as though abstract was perfect for me since I am more interested in the colors and how they interact than the subject itself. I love the freedom that Abstraction allows me to express.  Abstract allows me to be authentic to myself, and to my viewers. This is what I see and feel, this is what excites me, and it all comes from nature and life itself.  Abstract is a new challenge. Every day I walk into my studio and know that a challenge awaits me. Life is never dull within the walls of my studio, it is my happy place.  

Since COVID,  I have taken numerous workshops with well-established artists from both the US and the UK. I still do animal portraits, florals, and landscapes, but only in a more expressive style. I love keeping it Simple. 

When I am not in my studio painting, you can find me in my gardens playing with my various fur babies out in the woods on our property. I live with my husband and our 2 dogs and 5 cats, 1 of which is my studio cat.

Artist's Statement

     Each composition starts as a response to an image or sensation from nature. My method is largely intuitive. The compositions I build follow the dynamics of color; each color leads me to the next stroke, the next color. In my work, I tend to put the emphasis on the process and not the outcome. Color is the emotional center of my work; I layer, overlap, swipe, and wipe. Color builds up and disappears, like nature, it is ever changing. I love watching how colors interact with each other as each piece progresses. The raw emotions that color combinations can evoke: peace, pleasure, frustration, etc. I want for my viewers to feel something, and get as much please from my paintings as get painting them.