Diana Nadal

Diana Nadal

Appreciation of the Arts has been an integral part of Diana's professional and personal life. Her early exposure and encouragement has enabled her to strike a balance between her creative gifts and achieving her life's goals.  She has enjoyed tilting the scales to the creative side over the past seven years. She is often referred to as a "Renaissance woman." and her art represents those broad interests.  Diana's experiences as an Interior Decorator have influenced her color preferences, composition and perspective. She is a realistic painter and uses color to draw the viewer into her paintings.  She believes that a little bit of drama makes for good focal points both in decorating and art.  Diana's association with other marvelous artists keeps the creative juices flowing through the critique groups she has set up around the state through her Board position in the Watercolor Society of Oregon.                                         

The inspiration for many of her paintings comes from her own and her extended family's trip photos from around the world. Her African series came from her son's trip to Uganda, Tanzania, and Zanzibar.  Two of her favorite subjects are the mountain gorillas and the children of Uganda.  She is interested in giving a percentage of her profits from the sale of her African artwork to specific organizations to help insure the mountain gorillas preservation and to get books to the Ugandan schools. Several of her paintings on this website were inspired by her uncle's travels over three decades.  Her latest series is from her trip to France and Hong Kong.

Through the Watercolor Society of Oregon each spring and fall workshops are offered to coincide with the two conventions. 

• This Fall we were fortunate to have Ted Nuttall as the juror.  Diana was very inspired by his teaching style and techniques so watch for more portraits and figures this next year. 
• Karen Vernon taught the workshop in the Fall of 2010 teaching how to paint on Aquabord and several of the paintings you see on this website are on this surface. Learning to mix your paints on this surface is very challenging and the rewards in the color is spectacular.
• Robbie Laird's workshop on layering using multiple media--Graham watercolors and gouache and Golden acrylics--resulted in another growth experience.
• The George James 5-day workshop has resulted in many of her paintings being painted on "yupo," a plastic surface which allows the paint to move and be moved more creatively.