L Diane Johnson

AS A WEB DEVELOPER for corporate America for years, I made it a policy to keep my own Web site updated, streamlined and easier to use each time it went through a redesign. Since 1995, I have had a number of designs for my painting gallery. Just last September, I stepped-out and created a Flash animated site.

I have received more negative feedback for that site and more praise for my previous design. So...I have revamped and restyled my site of early 05 to bring back the warmth visitors said they experienced. Flash is a great tool, but for art galleries it can be a bit too "techie" if not handled carefully. Plus, there are still some who are not used to Flash technology. I am forward thinking, nevertheless, when it comes to users like yourself, ease of use rules.

I am marketing paintings, and as an artist I am sensitive to those who want to enjoy my work rather than present technical bells & whistles. With that in mind, I hope you'll come over to my new site and browse around. Particularly the gallery areas. I have made the paintings larger and hopefully the navigation even more intuitive. Let me know what you think!

Meanwhile, I continue to paint and will be featuring more new pieces here soon. The new site also contains and can handle many more works which I'll be adding to on a regular basis.

Enjoy...and thanks in advance for your visit!

JUST IDENTIFIED A PAINTING hiding in my studio that should have been posted long ago. In preparing to gather/place pieces in a new gallery (which I'll tell you about in a few days), this painting emerged and never been posted anywhere! It is most interesting and I wanted to share it before going to market.

This was created on an overcast day in Oahu's North shore with the Plein Air Painters of Hawaii (I love being part of this particular organization.) In any event, having been able to dash off this piece was special very to me.

One member arranged permission to paint in the private valley where Jurassic Park was filmed. Even a sign and building were remnants on site. I could not believe I was there. This little piece had to be painted quickly during a drizzling rain so only captures a glimpse of what I experienced...a huge, HUGE impressive valley with towering mountains surrounding us. In the sunlight it is incredibly impressive. To our back was the vast ocean.

I am updating my site design and when it's ready to roll-out I'll let you know. I will be able to post many more pieces there than ever before. Nevertheless, this will still be the first place fresh paintings are featured!!

HERE IS THE LAST in a series of three pieces I painted in a private Southern garden. I don't usually paint single flower blossoms but this one called out to be painted, expecially surrounded by the unusually delicate creamy yellow flowers. After painting two other larger pieces, I decided to do this small 8x10 to wind up the day.

THIS IS THE SECOND OF TWO PAINTINGS posted from the Epcot Center, Disney World gardens. This first image is how the painting looked after painting on location. The profusion of flowers was intoxicating so I had to simplify. Since this was a somewhat cloistered garden the sun’s impact was critical to rendering the architecture. Therefore, I finished the piece once again in the studio.

I AM FREQUENTLY ASKED when a plein-air painting is no longer considered to be a plein-air painting?

There are two pieces I recently created at Epcot Center in Florida. Both are loose and more impressionistic than some of my works. But where do you draw the line between a "pure plein-air" painting and one started on location; then finished in the studio? I’ll leave that decision up to you.

This first picture is of one painting straight from the easel. Compare it to the next photo for differences. At first, I was going to leave this painting as is, but saw that it had some vital weaknesses. However, as you’ll see, I made minor adjustments. Are they enough to still call this a plein-air painting? It surely cannot be considered to be "alla-prima" because I worked on it in two sessions...