Annie's Annuals is a nursery in Richmond, CA, that carries a lot of flowering annuals. I went there with a group of painters on a cloudy day to paint. All of us chose different views. I liked the arched trellis and rock walls near the entrance. Painting a profusion of foliage and flowers is a challenge because the result can too easily be a formless riot of visual cacophany. I concentrated on giving each of the different masses its own character, so the scene would "read" as a garden.
I found Diana via Imitation Fruit where one of her drawings served to illustrate a story. Annie's Annuals has arrived and waits to be framed. Framing it myself allows me to add punctuation, like a period or an exclamation point. When I look at Annie's Annuals my heart beats peacefully. I also bought The Chair from Diana. The Chair was an old friend of hers. It is my new friend. The Chair has it's own story. See Still Life.
-- Diana Mercedes Howell, 7/20/10
art, fine art, painting, drawing, printmaking, figures, nudes, portraits, landscapes, still life, mixed media, charcoal, pastel, acrylics, monotype, block print, woodcut, American, California, Berkeley, woman artist, female artist