Oil Painting Wins Diane Becker Artist of the Month Award

An accomplished portrait artist, Diane Becker’s oil painting of a strikingly beautiful young woman has won her the Artist of the Month award from the Nature Coast Art League, whose mission is to promote visual arts and support artists in Hernando County and surrounding areas,
“I am very honored to be recognized by the Nature Coast Art League,” she said. “My painting, along with some of my other works, will be exhibited at the Spring Hill Branch Library from March 5, 2025.”

Becker’s love of painting goes back to age five in St. Louis, Missouri. “I knew even then that I had an appreciation of art, she said. “From then on, I pursued every avenue through Elementary, Middle and High School and then went on to study at the School of Fine Art at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.”

Becker says she was influenced by the Impressionists, the predominant art movement during the 19th Century. “It was how they laid down so few strokes, and you wouldn’t know what it is up close, but when you view it from a few steps away, there’s a shoe, a flower or a face, all with just a few dabs or strokes of paint,” said Becker. “And I thought, how do they do that and know it’s going look like that from a distance?”

She explained that most impressionist paintings are comprised of small brush strokes or dabs of unmixed paint. This results in a painting that might not “be apparent” when viewed close up — but once you step back, the colors blend together, and you can see the image more clearly. This is common in Claude Monet’s work.

So very young and fascinated with art, Becker’s first art teacher was television’s first artist personality, Jon Gnagy. “Television was black and white back then, so everything he did was in charcoal,” she laughed. “Because with black and white TV, you’re not going to draw in color, are you?”

“Gnagy expressed to me about drawing and painting with “value” — the lightness or darkness of a color, which is a crucial element in creating depth, volume, and form within a piece,” she said. “I must have been about 10 or 12 then; I completed every one of his lessons and bought his instruction book, which I still have.”

Becker’s avenue of expertise is portrait painting in oils. “It’s my passion,” she says. “Even as a child, I entered contests with faces. Although I prefer the intimacy of working with a live model, most of my portraits are completed with photographed subjects and are used as gifts. I use a wide range of media for my portraits, primarily oil, but also pastel, charcoal, or colored pencils, whatever the customer prefers.”

Photographer and artist Joan LoBianco said, “Diane is an amazing artist. Her primary subjects are beautiful portraits that she meticulously creates with such likeness to her subjects. She also shares her love of the arts with many artists who attend her in studio sessions for paint along where she assists and shares techniques with the artists in attendance.”

Becker manages her skills by wanting to “own” the artwork. “I want control of it from beginning to end. I want the subject to be mine, so I create the whole thing from start to finish,” she said.

It’s been more than 40 years now since Becker relocated to Florida with her husband and two young sons to be close to family in Spring Lake. That’s when her teaching career began — “ten years at Pasco-Hernando Community College until Ronald Reagan cut back on government-subsidized classes,” she explained.

“But that didn’t deter me,” she said. “I started teaching at enrichment centers, community centers, and government buildings and did that for the next 15 years.”

Becker still teaches thirty years on. She added a studio to her house in Brooksville and conducts her art classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“I believe that my skills have been honed by demonstrating my work and critiquing the efforts of others,” she says.

“My friend, Diane Becker, is an inspiration for all of us,” said Mary Ellen Caesar, a pastel artist in Hernando County. “As incredibly accomplished as she is, she continues to love learning in every aspect of art. I enjoy her art, her wit, her friendship, and her ready laughter. Diane is truly a gem.”

Asked if her style of painting has changed over the years, she replied, “Not radically, but I find myself picking up new materials, new ideas and so I experiment a lot. I find that YouTube is a fantastic source for watching other artists and how they create.

“My style is bold yet sensitive, loose yet realistic, with strength of color and contrast,” she added. “I’ve always loved art with strong value; I’m not your wishy-washy type of painter at all.”

Becker continues to experiment and refine her skills by being part of a challenging group of artists. “We’re a band of professional artists that get together regularly to make ourselves paint different things, not just what you feel comfortable with,” she said. “It could be any kind of subject, large or miniature art, upside down art, or painting with your other hand.”

Through her longtime involvement with the county’s art community, her teaching career, the Nature Coast Art League, and Art in the Park, in particular, Becker says she has made many wonderful friends.

“I was part of Art in the Park when it was first held in Masaryktown,” she said. “There’s a definite need to showcase the arts to those who love to see it. It’s such a shame that Gallery 201 was closed.”

“My fondest memory of Diane is when I met her showcasing her paintings at Art in the Park back in the 90s,” LoBianco said. “She offered to draw a sketch of my youngest son and captured his likeness perfectly. I still cherish this drawing to this day.”

Becker studied under Thomas Nash, Allen Banks, Helen Van Wyk, Diane Kesske, Susan Daffinee, and Fred Conway. She was published in the Fourth Volume of the Artists of Florida and is listed in the Cambridge Who’s Who.

You can view her works of art at the Spring Hill Branch Library from March 5 until the end of the month. She will also be featured at the 2025 Art in the Park event, which will take place on March 8 and 9 at Tom Barn Park in Brooksville.

Visit https://www.dianebeckerstudio.com to view Diane’s superb work.

To contact Diane directly or for more information, call 352-799-0235 or email: [email protected]